Ryan Prosser
Published November 21, 2025 1:50pm
Updated November 21, 2025 1:51pm
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Ismail Ali reappeared at a police station this week after being reported missing for five years (Picture: West Yorkshire Police)
Friends of a man who went missing in Bradford say they have been puzzled after he reappeared five years later.
Corner shopkeeper Ismail Ali vanished in May 2020, with neighbours believing he had gone for good – until he presented himself alive and well at a police station this week.
Mr Ali, 51, was said to be a popular ‘regular face’ around the West Yorkshire City before he disappeared.
Some residents believed he was having family problems and could have gone to the south of England to get a job.
However following his miraculous return, some of his friends wonder whether he had been living in the city all this time under a disguise.
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One friend told the Daily Mail he had had ‘lots of rows and stress at home’.
They suggested the bearded shopkeeper at Gulam Food Stores had ‘finally had enough and started a new life’.
Earlier this week, West Yorkshire Police announced it had detained five suspects, three women and two men, after believing Mr Ali to have been murdered.
Mr Ali, 51, is currently being ‘safeguarded’ while an investigation into his disappearance is ongoing (Picture: West Yorkshire Police)
Detectives then confirmed that on Wednesday, Mr Aliturned up at a police station reporting to be safe and well.
It said the 51-year-old is now being safeguarded but not under arrest.
‘Officers are working to understand the full circumstances surrounding his disappearance’, the force said.
Several of the arrested suspects remain on bail for money laundering offences, after a large amount of cash was seized from three properties searched by officers as part of the investigation.
Another friend provided a possible explanation for his sudden reappearance, suggesting that arrests could have been a catalyst for him to come out of hiding.
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‘His conscience wouldn’t allow him to continue hiding if he thought people would go to prison for killing him’, they added.
A resident living near one of the raided homes said it was as if Mr Ali ‘came back from the dead’.
Another friend of Mr Ali said the shopkeeper claimed to have been working in southern England.
However Mr Ali’s former employer, who asked not to be named, said he had worked for the company for a long time and that they had no idea of his whereabouts for the five years he went missing.
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