Pak lawyer traces roots in Abohar

Raj Sadosh

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Abohar, October 2

Keeping the word given to his father and Pakistan Supreme Court lawyer Haji Abdul Rehman Qureshi, Lahore-based High Court advocate Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi spent yesterday in tracing the roots of his parents here.

Imtiaz, founder chairman of the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation in Lahore, is on one-month visa to India. He had brought water from the martyr’s house at Banga village (Jaranwala tehsil, Lyallpur district) besides the leaves of a mango tree planted by Arjun Singh, Bhagat Singh’s grandfather, 200 years ago.

Last week, he visited Hoshiarpur and Hussainiwala in Ferozepur to meet the martyr’s family and pay obeisance at his ‘samadhi’.

Here, he visited Abohar railway station that has undergone a sea change since Partition when his parents had migrated to Lahore.

He found Mandi Kesar Ganj (old grain market) gate in its original shape. It had been constructed during British rule in 1894.

He visited Sukhera Basti that had been developed by Mian Bagh Ali Sukhera who was member of the Punjab Assembly in 1946.

Imtiaz also visited a mosque here where his parents used to offer namaz. The complex is now occupied by Hindu migrants from Sahiwal (Montgomery) district of West Punjab (Pakistan).

While visiting the Gaushala, Imtiaz remembered that his father, a strong nationalist and Congress activist, preferred to procure milk from here.

Freedom fighter and former Punjab minister (late) Chandi Ram Verma’s grandson Sanjiv presented Imtiaz a copy of a photo taken with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and other veterans during the freedom movement.

Water from martyr’s house 

Pakistani lawyer Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi has brought water from patriot Bhagat Singh’s house at Banga village (Jaranwala tehsil, Lyallpur district, Pakistan) and leaves of a mango tree planted by Arjun Singh, Bhagat Singh’s grandfather, about 200 years ago.