Missing girl’s father, family hold on to hope
Afghan community in San Antonio is left sad and fearful after 3-year-old’s disappearance last month from apartment complex
SAN ANTONIO — The United States was a breath of freedom for Riaz Sardar Khil and his family when they fled Afghanistan more than two years ago.
By the time the Taliban regained control of their homeland last August, the family was settled in an apartment complex in San Antonio where many fellow Afghans also lived. There, they found a tight-knit community and felt safe.
That newfound peace was shattered Dec. 20 when Khil’s 3-yearold daughter, Lina Sardar Khil, went missing from a playground a few feet from the family’s front door.
Lina’s disappearance filled her community with sadness and fear and elicited an outpouring of support from near and far. San Antonio police, the FBI, nonprofit groups and many volunteers have searched for the girl. The FBI sent an elite team of divers to look in the shallow, murky waters of a creek not far from Lina’s home. Rewards totaling $150,000 have been offered for information that leads to her discovery.
Khil, 26, and his family continue to search, holding onto hope while coping with sorrow, pain and a gnawing fear that someone took the child with malicious intent.
“How can anyone cut a piece of my heart?” Khil asked.
The girl’s disappearance is all the more wrenching given that she and her mother survived a brush with death in August. They had gone back to Afghanistan to help a relative and were outside the Kabul airport when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt. More than 180 people were killed. Lina was knocked unconscious by the blast.
Sitting in his San Antonio apartment recently after another round of searching with volunteers, Khil spoke through an interpreter in Pashto, his native language, about his daughter. “We came from a horrible place with the hope of a better life,” he said.
Since Lina’s disappearance, many San Antonians have reached out to support the family, including volunteering to search for her.
The Islam Center of San Antonio has raised money — $100,000 at last count — as a reward for information that leads directly to finding Lina. Crime Stoppers of San Antonio is offering $50,000 for information resulting in an arrest.
Lina’s family is keeping faith and hope that they will see her again. “We fully trust in our God that Lina will come back home,” Khil said. “That is giving us motivation.”
San Antonio police have classified Lina’s disappearance as a missing person case.
Asked what he would say to Lina, Khil smiled at the thought of seeing his daughter again.
He closed his eyes, his voice grew softer, and the interpreter relayed Khil’s thoughts.
“The only message he has is to hold Lina in his arms, to get her near to his heart.”