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Reunited 74 years after India-Pakistan cut up, brothers hope to spend remainder of life collectively
PHULEWALA: In August 1947, as British India was being partitioned into two impartial states, Sikka Khan’s father and elder brother, Sadiq, left Phulewala village — which turned the Indian a part of Punjab — and returned to their paternal village of Bogran, which turned a part of Pakistan.
Simply two-years-old on the time, Sikka was too younger to go and stayed behind in India together with his mom. The household was to be reunited quickly. The dad and mom solely wished to attend till it was protected for the toddler to journey.
However the promise of being collectively once more was lower quick by a bloody orgy of violence and communal rioting that marred one of many greatest pressured migrations in historical past. Following the partition in 1947, about 15 million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, fearing discrimination and violence, swapped international locations in a political upheaval that value greater than one million lives.
It was in these circumstances that Sikka and Sadiq misplaced their father, mom — who dedicated suicide when she came upon about her husband’s dying — and the bond that was solely restored final week.
“I advised you we might meet once more,” Sikka, 76, stated by tears, as he embraced his 84-year-old brother once they met in Kartarpur, Pakistan on Jan. 10.
Kartarpur is a border metropolis the place Pakistan, in late 2019, opened a visa-free crossing to permit Indian Sikh pilgrims entry to one of many holiest websites of their faith, Gurdwara Darbar Sahib. After the partition, the positioning discovered itself on the Pakistani aspect of the swiftly drawn-up border.
The brothers’ reunion didn’t final lengthy, as every of them needed to return to their international locations. For the previous seven many years, cross-border visits have been restricted by tensions and battle.
“It was an emotional second for us, and I couldn’t imagine that I used to be assembly my brother and his household,” Sikka advised Arab Information in Phulewala village, the place he has remained since 1947.
“Life has given me the chance to reunite with my brother and I don’t need to stay with out him,” he stated. “I would like the corporate of my brother greater than ever earlier than. I need to stay the remainder of my life with my elder brother.”
They received in contact in 2019, when Pakistani YouTuber Nasir Dhillon visited Bogran village, the place Sadiq nonetheless lives, and heard his story. He shared the footage on social media and shortly acquired a message from Jagsir Singh, a physician in Phulewala, who linked him to Sikka.
The YouTuber and the physician helped the brothers meet nearly.
“The brothers for the primary time noticed one another over a video name two years in the past,” Singh advised Arab Information. “Since then, they’ve remained in contact with one another by WhatsApp.”
They’ve been speaking to one another not less than quarter-hour every single day, nevertheless it took them two years to satisfy in individual as even the visa-free Kartarpur hall was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic till late final 12 months.
“The opening of the Kartarpur hall in November final 12 months allowed us the chance to arrange the assembly between the brothers,” Singh stated.
When he arrived in Kartarpur on Jan. 10, Sikka, who doesn’t have his circle of relatives, was accompanied by a dozen villagers from Phulewala.
“For me, my village has been household,” he stated, as he chatted to Sadiq by a video name. “Now I need to go to Pakistan and stay with my elder brother for a while. I hope the Pakistani authorities offers me a visa.”
Sadiq, too, desires to go to his birthplace.
“I need to meet Sikka in his village,” he stated in the course of the video name together with his brother. “We need to stay collectively and make up for the time we’ve got misplaced.”
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