Separated during Partition, Sikh family reunites after 75 years at Kartarpur Sahib, thanks to social media

PTI

Lahore, March 3  

Seventy-five years after they separated during the Partition in 1947, the families of two Sikh brothers met at the Kartarpur Corridor, singing songs and showering flowers on each other in an emotional reunion made possible through social media.

The families of Gurdev Singh and Daya Singh arrived at the Kartarpur Corridor on Thursday for a reunion.

Emotional scenes of the family reunion were witnessed at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur Sahib where they sang songs to express their joy and showered flowers on each other.

Both the brothers hailed from Haryana and used to live in Gomla village in Mahendragarh district with their late father's friend, Karim Bakhsh, at the time of the Partition.

Bakhsh migrated to Pakistan along with elder Gurdev Singh while younger Daya Singh remained in Haryana with his maternal uncle.

After reaching Pakistan, Bakhsh moved to Jhang district of Punjab province, some 200 kms from Lahore, and gave a Muslim name (Ghulam Muhammad) to Gurdev Singh. Gurdev Singh passed away a few years ago.

Muhammad Sharif, son of Gurdev, told the media that over the years his father had written letters to the government of India to find the whereabouts of his brother Daya Singh.

"Six months ago, we managed to find uncle Daya Singh through social media," he said, adding that both families decided to reach Kartarpur Sahib for the reunion.

He urged the Indian government to give visas to his family members here so that they could visit their ancestral house in Haryana.

Last year also, two brothers who had separated during the Partition had reunited at Kartarpur Corridor.

Muhammad Siddique, 80, from Pakistan and Habib, 78, from India, met in January 2022 at the Kartarpur Corridor. They were also reunited with the help of social media.

The Kartarpur Corridor links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Punjab province, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, with the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in India's Punjab state.

The 4 km-long corridor provides visa-free access to Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit the Darbar Sahib.

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