Mumtaz Bibi flanked by her brothers Baldev Singh (left) and Gurmukh Singh in the Kartarpur reunion – Photo: Screengrab of Punjabi Sanjh TV YouTube
By Asia Samachar | Kartarpur, Pakistan |
It was a teary reunion for a sister separated form her family when still an infant in a Partition melee 75 years ago. She met her brothers for the first time at Kartarpur recently, thanks to social media links and the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor.
Until some years ago, Mumtaz Bibi was not even aware of the incident where she got torn apart from other family members as they were making their way to Punjab on the Indian side.
After a futile search just days after the 1947 event, her family was left clueless on the fate of their daughter. They were not even sure if she was still alive. So, they continued their lives in Punjab, India, without ever knowing about their daughter.
“We never thought this (reunion) would ever take place, not even in our wildest dreams. We used to hear stories from our elders. During the skirmish about 10 miles from their village, everyone ran helter-skelter. Our sister was lost then, never to be found again,” Gurmukh Singh told Punjabi Sanjh TV, a portal that records oral history of people who had to leave their villages on the India side to settle in Punjab on the Pakistan side. See the interview here.
Gurmukh and his younger brother Baldev Singh met Mumtaz Bibi at Kartapur. They were accompanied by more than a dozen family members on both sides.
When Pakistan was carved out of India in 1947, the state of Punjab probably suffered the most in what has been called the Partition. Sikhs living on the now Pakistan side of Punjab migrated towards the Indian side of Punjab, while millions of Muslims moved the other way. In the process, numerous atrocities were reported. At the same time, there were also many heroic stories where people assisted each other, going beyond their religious identity.
At the time of the Partition, Mumtaz Bibi was an infant who was lying on the dead body of her mother who was killed by the local violent mobs. One Muhammad Iqbal and his wife, Allah Rakhi, adopted the baby girl and raised her as their own daughter, naming her Mumtaz Bibi. After the Partition, Iqbal took up residence at the village of Varika Tian in Sheikhupura district, reported Pakistan newspaper The Dawn.
Iqbal and his wife did not tell Mumtaz that she was not their daughter. Two years ago, Iqbal’s health suddenly deteriorated and he told Mumtaz that she was not his real daughter and that her real family was Sikh, the report added.
After Iqbal’s death, Mumtaz and her son, Shahbaz, started searching for her family through social media. They knew the name of Mumtaz’s real father and the village (Sidrana) in Patiala district of Indian Punjab where they settled after being forced to leave their native home. Both the families got connected through social media.
In the interview, Gurmukh said that after leaving her elder brother (who was about 12 years old then) in Amritsar, some family members went back to the village to see if she had been taken there. Tragically, before their return, the older drowned when he fell into a well.
“We’ve always thought about visiting the village where our parents and elders came from. But the idea kept getting postponed,” said Baldev. “When we found about our sister, we then got our passports done and started making other preparations. It took more than one-and- a-half-year to make arrangements for the meeting.”
The brothers have met their sister. Now, they long to see village where their prents were born. “We will leave first thing upon getting the visa,” Baldev quipped.
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A novel of Sikh lives during the Partition (Asia Samachar, 28 June 2020)
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