75 years after being split from his family after Partition, Jalandhar-based Sikh Amarjit Singh was overjoyed to finally see his Muslim sister from Pakistan at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur.
Singh and his sister were abandoned in India after Partition as his Muslim parents moved to Pakistan.
When wheelchair-bound Singh and his sister Kulsoom Akhtar met on Wednesday at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan’s Punjab state, everyone’s eyes welled up with tears.
According to The Express Tribune newspaper, Singh entered Pakistan over the Wagah border with a visa to meet his sister.
After meeting Singh, Kulsoom, 65, was unable to contain her emotions.
Both of them hugged while still sobbing. She, her son Shahzad Ahmed, and other family members had traveled from her hometown of Faisalabad to visit her brother.
Kulsoom told the newspaper that her parents left her brother and sister behind when they moved from a Jalandhar suburb to Pakistan in 1947.
Kulsoom claimed to have been born in Pakistan and that she used to learn from her mother about her missing siblings. She claimed that every time her mother thought of her lost children, she used to cry.
She admitted that she didn’t think she’d ever get to meet her brother and sister.
But a few years ago, her father’s friend Sardar Dara Singh traveled to Pakistan from India and met her as well.
The daughter and son she left behind in India were mentioned by her mother to Sardar Dara Singh. She also gave him information about their home’s location and the name of their village.
Then, Sardar Dara Singh went to her home in Padawan Village to tell her that although her daughter had died, her son was still alive.
Amarjit Singh, her son, was taken in by a Sikh family in 1947.
Kulsoom connected with Singh on WhatsApp after receiving the brother’s information and ultimately decided to meet.
In spite of her excruciating back pain, Kulsoom had the fortitude to go to Kartarpur just to see her brother.
Singh claimed that when he initially discovered that his biological parents were Muslims and lived in Pakistan, the information shocked him. He found solace in the fact that in addition to his own family, many other families were split apart.
He stated he had long yearned to meet his actual brothers and sisters. He expressed his happiness upon learning that three of his brothers are still alive. One brother, who was living in Germany, however, perished away.
He stated that he would now travel to Pakistan to visit his family.
He added that he intends to bring his family to India so they can meet their Sikh relatives. For each other, the siblings each brought numerous gifts.
This is the second time a family has been reunited thanks to the Kartarpur Corridor. A woman from a Sikh family who was adopted and brought up by a Muslim couple visited her Indian brothers in Kartarpur in May.
News Mania Desk
