NAROWAL: Two cousins who were separated by the Partition of India in 1947 were reunited at the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur, on Sunday, after a gap of 76 years.

Muhammad Ismail (84) reached Gurdwara Darbar Sahib from district Sahiwal and Surinder Kaur reached there from Jalandhar, India via the Kartarpur Corridor. Ismail and Surinder Kaur are cousins. During their meeting, both the cousins hugged each other and could not control their tears, overwhelmed by emotions.

Ismail said that he was living in Shahkot town of district Jalandhar before the Partition and during the riots, the families of Kaur and Ismail were separated.

“I and my other family members tried hard to find our missing family members but could not find any information about them.”

Ismail said that after the establishment of Kartarpur Corridor four years ago, Khayam Asghar Chohan, a YouTuber, recorded his interview for his channel, Desi Infotainer, which went viral on social media.

“After my interview went viral, Mission Singh from Australia contacted me and shared information about my missing family members in India and a contact developed between the families on the phone.”

He said he got excited to meet his family members after finding out about them and was anxious to meet them, especially his cousin Surinder Kaur; however, he could not get a visa to visit India in the last four years.

“The Indian Embassy is not issuing a visit visa to me. I had written a letter also to the Indian government and the chief minister of Indian Punjab to issue me a visit visa but in vain,” Ismail complained.

Surindra Kaur said she was very happy to meet her cousin and her family members. She said she kept looking for her family members but no one was found.

Kaur’s family performed religious rituals at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib while members of both the families visited different parts of the gurdwara. They thanked the government of Pakistan for the Kartarpur Corridor, saying that with the establishment of the corridor, love and affection would increase in both the countries. Sweets were distributed to both families by the administration of the gurdwara.

Published in Dawn, October 23th, 2023