Sikh Woman Missing

SINGH 7 · October 26, 2006

CREDIT: Handout photo

Manjit Panghali

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

SURREY, B.C. -- A Surrey school teacher admitted at a news conference Monday that he waited 26 hours before telling the police his wife, who is four months pregnant, had disappeared.

Mukhtiar Panghali said the delay was caused by his efforts last Wednesday night and all day Thursday to find his wife Manjit.

He said he called police as soon as he was sure that no one among family or friends was aware of the whereabouts of his 30-year-old wife. "I reported her missing after 26, 27 hours," Panghali said yesterday. "Why? To make sure that she was in fact gone. I called friends and family to make sure no one knew anything."

He said he last saw Manjit as she was getting ready to attend a yoga class for pregnant women last Wednesday evening.

Manjit, a teacher at North Ridge Elementary in Greater Vancouver's Surrey suburb, has not been seen since she apparently drove off in her silver Honda to attend the yoga class.

She never made it to the class.

Police said Monday they had recovered her car and on Sunday night, the vehicle was towed to Surrey RCMP for forensic analysis.

Police said they found the vehicle in the Lower Mainland but declined to say where or whether there were any clues to indicate what has happened to Manjit. But a source close to Manjit's family said the car was discovered near a Surrey park.

Panghali said his wife maintained a tight routine and it was out of character for her to stay away from home without informing anyone.

Manjit has a 3 1/2-year-old daughter who family members said she loves dearly. They say she would not have left her daughter at home had she planned to run away.

"It was really out of her character," said Panghali, a physics teacher at Surrey's Princess Margaret Secondary. "She would not leave her family alone, she would not leave her daughter alone and she would not leave me alone."

He told a packed news conference attended by his family and his wife's family that he tried to call her cellphone but it was "switched off."

"I need you to please come forward if you know anything, please. We need your help," he said in a choked voice.

Asked to describe his wife's demeanour as she left their home last Wednesday, he said: "She was as happy as could be." He said there had been no family problems at home.

Panghali said he has tried his best to shelter his daughter Maya from events surrounding the disappearance of her mom. But the child keeps asking a "thousand questions."

Manjit's sister, Jas Bhambra, spoke emotionally about her sister and pleaded for information.

"Our sister is a kind loving person," she said. "She would not just leave. We are all very distraught, it is devastating.

"There was absolutely no reason for her to leave. We are desperate to find our sister, she wouldn't leave her daughter, she wouldn't leave her family."

Also present at the news conference were Manjit's brothers Tur and Jagjit Basra, her mother Surinder Kaur and dad Resham Basra. CanWest News Service has learned from people who know both families that Manjit's disappearance has led to a rift between her family and her husband's family. Both sides hardly spoke to each other at the conference and left separately afterward.

The principal of North Ridge Elementary, where Manjit teaches Grade 1 two days a week, sent letters home with her pupils yesterday advising parents that counselling is available for anyone who needed it.

School district spokesman Doug Strachan said staff are doing what they can.

"The students have been told in the school, as well as the class she taught."

CREDIT: Ric Ernst, The Province

Mukhtiar Panghali addresses the media at RCMP headquarters in Surrey yesterday. Panghali's 30-year-old wife, Manjit, who is four months' pregnant, has been missing since Oct. 18.