Dubai: Sheikh Hamdan meets Pakistani delivery rider from viral video

Dubai’s Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has met with the hero delivery rider Abdul Ghafoor who went viral after a video surfaced of him removing two concrete blocks from the road.

It is among the first things Sheikh Hamdan did after returning to the UAE from the UK on Thursday.

On his Instagram story, Sheikh Hamdan posted a photo with his arm around Abdul Ghafoor, who is dressed in a blue and white T-shirt and blue jeans, and wrote “An honour to meet you Abdul Ghafoor, a true example to be followed.”

Last month, Sheikh Hamdan had posted on his Instagram stories looking for the hero delivery, about whom Khaleej Times had earlier reported. Posting the viral video, Sheikh Hamdan said: “An act of goodness in Dubai to be praised. Can someone point me to this man?” A little later, he posted that the “good man” had been found. “Thank you, Abdul Ghafoor, you are one of a kind. We will meet soon!”

Speaking to KT later, Pakistani national Abdul Ghafoor Abdul Hakeem shared his excitement at receiving a phone call from Sheikh Hamdan. “I could not believe my ears,” an elated Abdul Ghafoor said.

He was out for a delivery when the call came. “The Dubai Crown Prince thanked me for what I had done. He also said that he was out of the country right now and promised he would meet me as soon as he was back.”

In the video that has been shared several times on social media, Abdul Ghafoor can be seen waiting at the busy traffic intersection in Al Quoz as cars and trucks whiz past him. Once all the vehicles have passed, he runs to remove two heavy concrete blocks, which is thought to have fallen out of a truck that passed by the area earlier. He then puts them in a safe place before returning to his bike.

However, Pakistani national Abdul Ghafoor did not even realise that someone had taken a video of him until almost two weeks later. Later, Talabat rewarded his actions by giving him a ticket to fly back home so he could spend time with his two-year-old son. During an initial interview with KT, Abdul Ghafoor had admitted that he had left his home country when his son was just a few months old and he missed him terribly.

• Viral UAE video: Talabat rider praised for removing concrete blocks from busy road

• 'Hello, this is Sheikh Hamdan': Hero delivery rider gets call of a lifetime from Dubai Crown Prince

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