'The search for my son is at a standstill'

On the four-year anniversary of the kidnap Tahseen Kauser, of Addy Street, Upperthorpe, says she is helpless and alone, with no-one to help her in her quest to be reunited with her son.

Nabeel Khan was just seven when he was stolen by his father Iqbal Khan in August 2003.

He is now 11 and living with his father in Saudi Arabia, having first been hidden away in his parents' homeland of Kashmir.

Despite countless court orders, and the fact Nabeel was snatched illegally on a fake passport, the only contact British authorities have made with the boy has been a brief welfare check in September last year.

Tahseen, a schoolteacher, was not informed of the meeting in advance and so was unable even to speak to her son on the telephone.

Today the 47-year-old told The Star: "I am at a standstill. I am still waiting for the day when I will hear from or speak to my son.

"I have lost all confidence in the authorities. I have been left alone to this terrible fate. I am just cut off, stopped in time the day Nabeel was abducted.

"I try to keep strong because what else can I do? Just fizzle out, drop down and die?"

Tahseen, who travelled to Kashmir alone in 2004 to try to find her son, now has her hopes pinned on securing a visa so she can go to Saudi Arabia - a difficult task as women can only travel to the country if they are met by a Saudi 'sponsor' upon arrival.

Her ex-husband has claimed to the British Embassy he would sponsor Tahseen to enter the country - but only if she withdraws the court cases against him in the UK. In reality he has lodged two legal cases with the Saudi government against her, which would make it impossible for Tahseen to travel to the country anyway.

He claims Nabeel moved to Saudi Arabia of his own free will, and says the boy does not want any contact with his mother.

Tahseen said: "Everything must be so fizzy in Nabeel's mind now. It has been four years. I'm sure that somewhere in a corner of his mind the memory of my love is still there, but he has had four years of his father's lies. What chance does he have?"

Nabeel - whose old classmates at Netherthorpe Primary finished junior school in July - would be preparing to move to secondary school in Sheffield this September.

"An era of his life has finished without me even being there," said Tahseen.