Siblings Separated Due To Partition Reunited After 75 Long Years
Update: 2022-09-11 16:00 IST
Siblings Separated Due To Partition Reunited After 75 Long Years
Amarjit Singh, a Sikh from Jalandhar, reunited with his long-lost sister Kulsoom Akhtar, who had been living in Pakistan with their family ever since the partition, in a touching ceremony in Kartarpur in Pakistan's Punjab. The 75-year reunion brought many people to tears as the wheelchair-bound Singh arrived at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib without giving any thought to his physical limitations.
The Kartarpur Corridor assisted in the reuniting of families split up by the partition numerous times earlier as well. Stories of blood relatives finding each other continue to span all frontiers in this corridor.
While his Muslim parents left Jalandhar for Pakistan during the partition, Singh and his sisters remained in India. Kulsoom was only aware of her siblings through the tales her mother would tell her because she was born to their parents after they had relocated to Pakistan. The family expanded, but the gap created by her deceased siblings persisted for about 75 years. Kulsoom remembered how every time her mother spoke of her lost children, it always brought tears to her eyes. They never once dared to hope that they would be able to get together again in this way years later.
It was made possible by Sardar Dara Singh, a friend of her father's who had travelled to Pakistan from India to visit their family. Kulsoom's mother gave him the address of the village they used to live in and told him tales about the son and daughter she left behind in Jalandhar during his trips.
When Dara Singh went back to India, he went to the residence and was able to find Amarjit Singh. He learned that his sister had passed several years earlier and that Amarjit had been adopted by a Sikh family in 1947.
Dara Singh contacted Kulsoom after finding him and told her about her brother. They had a WhatsApp conversation and arranged to meet up at the border.
They both have health issues brought on by ageing, but despite this, the brother and sister travelled great distances to be together. Singh had obtained a visa to cross the border at Attari-Wagah, and his sister arrived at the corridor from Faisalabad.
They sobbed and embraced it upon seeing one another after 75 years. He was beyond thrilled that the reunion had finally taken place when Kulsoom introduced him to her son Shahzad Ahmed and other family members.