Five months ago, 32-year-old Ali Durrani, grabbed his phone and cap, told his mum Mahjabeen that he was going out to clear his head and left his home in south-west Birmingham.
It was normal behaviour for the economics graduate; Ali loved walking and would go out most days, so when he left at lunchtime, Mahjabeen thought nothing of it. When he hadn’t returned hours later, she started calling round his friends, and after it got dark, contacted the police.
Ali still hasn’t returned to his Stirchley address to this day and his family are desperate for answers. He had never disappeared before or showed signs of self harm and Ali wasn’t in any trouble. So why hasn’t he come home?
‘There’s no evidence of death anywhere. He didn’t take his passport, or his phone charger. We don’t think he’d have killed himself…We’ve asked: “Would he just leave? Did he just want to leave his life and go somewhere else?” We’re pretty sure he wouldn’t have because he was so family-orientated’, his aunt Naureen Mohammed tells Metro over Zoom from her home in London.
Ali had been out of work for a year, which had left him feeling anxious, but with plans to set up his own business, the family does not believe he would have harmed himself. ‘We don’t think he just walked out of his life. So could he have come to some harm?’ she asks.
‘He was making plans’
The last time Naureen, 52, spoke to her nephew was three days before he went missing on 5 February and he seemed his normal self when he called her for a Sunday afternoon catch-up.
‘We had a really nice, hour-long chat. He was talking about his business, I was talking about work, we talked about him coming to stay for a few days. He was making plans, he wasn’t disconnected with the world, or super withdrawn,’ the sales director from London says.
Heartbreakingly, Naureen veers between talking about Ali in the past and present tense when she speaks to Zoom. The whole family are hoping for him to be found but dreading the worst.
‘He wasn’t laddish, he didn’t drink, he wasn’t in pubs or anything like that. He was just a homebody; he had a family dinner with his parents every evening. He was close to his younger brother and he was really into his health,’ Naureen explains.
A core part of the family
Ali is an intelligent, quiet man who was living with his parents – which is not unusual for unmarried men in Asian families. ‘He’s very family orientated. I’ve known him for 30 years, and he’s probably never missed a celebration. He’s a core part of the family with a good circle of close friends,’ Naureen says.
Ali’s phone – which remained switched on for three days after he disappeared, has not been found. The family rooted through his computers, checked through his emails and social media, using his Apple ID to log on, but found nothing conclusive to suggest anything was amiss.
‘This disappearance is completely out of character. We’ve been asking: “Was there a girl? Was there a boy?” But there was nothing like that.
‘We think he’s somewhere. That a crime has been committed, that he’s been hurt. There’s no evidence of death anywhere. The police haven’t found a body, so we think he’s being held,’ Naureen explains.
Meanwhile, Mahjabeen and Khadim are left bereft, unable to eat, sleep or enjoy their time with their first grandson, Ali’s nephew.
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‘When the baby was born, the love that they had as grandparents; you could see it in their bodies. They’d be glowing. And when I visited recently and they picked up the baby, I couldn’t see the same feeling. They’ve just lost so much.
‘They’re like shadows. Their hair’s gone white and they look so withdrawn. Every moment is taken up by “Where’s our son? Where’s our son?” They are waiting for a knock on the door. Thinking – do we have to be at home all the time? Can we go out? There is this anticipated grief and it’s really taken its toll.’
‘We just need answers’
In a statement, Mahjabeen, 56, said: ‘We’re living with constant anxiety and fear. Our family is incomplete without him. His father and younger brother Hammad are distraught. We can’t find peace or carry on with our lives while Ali is missing. We just need answers.’
West Midlands Police officers have carried out drone searches, scoured railway tracks, hunted marshes and riverbeds and a ‘digidog’ has been sent into Ali’s bedroom to sniff out any hidden sim cards or hard drives that could provide answers. Nothing was found.
Be vigilant
Naureen has begged for anyone with any information to contact the police or family. ‘If you have even a tiny piece of information, please get in touch, no matter how small. As we have no information at all.
‘Before this happened to us, I would see Missing People posters and it never occurred to me to really look, or report something. But now this has happened to my family, I’m looking at all these homeless people in London and thinking about what their stories are. I carry spare change with me now, so I can give it to people.
‘I just want the public to be vigilant; to really look and register his face and if you see anything, please just phone the police,’ she adds.
The family have been grateful for the support they’ve had from the Missing People charity.
‘They did an appeal in the early days and more recently ran digital billboards at Birmingham New Street Station. Their support has been invaluable; they are very available and approachable and they have been hugely empathetic and helpful on this difficult journey,’ she says.
As Ali’s case investigation creeps dangerously close to being logged as a cold case by the police, the family remain anguished.
Naureen adds: ’In the UK, 170,000 people go missing every year, and at this timeline, getting to six months, only 1% are ever found. Ali’s is a very unusual case.
‘We’ve had no sight or sound of him. We’re just at a loss. If Ali were to read this, we just want to tell him that we love him. We don’t care what’s happened. We don’t care what the circumstances are. He’s got a loving family at home waiting for him, and he’s left a huge hole in our lives, and we just want him back.’
West Midlands police commented: ‘We understand the concern from the family and the distress that they have gone through since Ali went missing. Since Ali was reported missing, we have contacted the family at key times. We will be meeting with them to provide an overview of the investigation, which we hope will reassure them of the extent of our enquiries.’
