LONDON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- One of three women London police say were held as slaves for 30 years was reunited this week with her sister, who said the family had missed her "desperately."
Kamar Mahtum, 73, came to London from Malaysia -- a trip arranged by The Daily Telegraph -- and had what she called a "very emotional day, very revealing," as she met with her sister, Aishah Wahab, 69.
The family had not heard from Wahab since the early 1970s, when she joined a Maoist commune in London. She was found last month -- along with a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 30-year-old British woman -- living in an apartment where investigators said they had been treated as slaves.
Aravindan Balakrishnan, 73, and his wife Chanda, 67, were arrested Nov. 21 on suspicion of forced labor and slavery, as well as immigration offenses.
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Records indicate the couple were among the leaders of the Mao Zedong Memorial Center in south London in the 1970s, the BBC reported this week.
Mahtum told the newspaper she brought a letter asking her sister to return "to the fold."
"Aishah we love you very much, we miss you and have been missing you desperately all these years," the letter said.
"Basically it was a very emotional day, very revealing," Mahtum told the Daily Telegraph.
"But then I was contented, I got what I wanted and I can bring home the beautiful memories and I've a feeling that she [does] want to come home eventually and we will work hard to persuade her."
Investigators said the 30-year-old British woman found at the apartment may have been born and raised in the home.
