PARTITION-RELATED STORIES

*Pakistani sons meet their Indian mother after a Separation of 52 Years, Amir Mir (Lahore) DNA, November 13, 2006

 

Two 50-plus Pakistani brothers, who finally met their 75-year-old Indian mother after a long gap of 52 years in Lahore, last week, are not letting her go back to India, although her visa expired on November 11.

 

Karamatullah and his brother Qudratullah have me their mother, Herbuns Kaur, in Nankana Sahib for the first time after being separated in 1954.

 

The Pakistani media has reported that the Pakistani security forces forcibly sent Herbuns Kaur to India 52 years ago, thinking that she was an Indian national although she had already converted to Islam and married a Muslim.

 

The recent birth anniversary celebration of Baba Guru Nanak at Nankana Sahib proved to be the reunion ceremony for the family as the Indian mother and her Pakistani children were able to meet each other there. The family of Herbuns Kaur, born to Sikh parents from Eastern Punjab, who had settled in Muzaffarabad in PoK before Partition, migrated to India in 1947 when she was 14 year old. On the way to India, one of her uncles tried to kill her fearing that she would fall victim to the rioters’ aggression, but Herbuns Kaur survived.

 

Reportedly Mir Hussan, the Sikh family’s servant, took her to his illage in Muzaffarabad and adopted. She converted to Islam and married Sakhiullah, a Pakistan Army officer. She subsequently gave birth to two sons - Qudratullah and Karamatullah. When the two sons were 6 and 7 years old, Sakhiullah got posted to Siallkot, from where the security forces arrested Herbuns Kaur and deported her to India in 1954. She said her family in Bombay married her to Kore Singh, who died after some time.

 

“I tried my best o find my Muslim husband and my sons, but to no avail. When I returned to Pakistan two years ago as a pilgrim at Punja Sahib, I saw Jasi Singh of Faisalabad who was wearing a locket with Muzaffarabad written on it. Jasi said he would help me find my sons, and I gave him their photographs. Jasi called me in India one day and said a college professor had recognized the pictures, and had promised to trace my sons.”

 

With Jasi’s help, Herbuns Kaur said, the professor finally found her sons in 2005. “However, we could only talk over the telephone since then. I met my sons for the first time after almost six decades at Baba Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary.” Herbuns Kaur presently lives with the children of her brother-in-law in India. “I don’t want to leave my sons here, which is troubling me now,” Herbuns said in Nankana Sahib.

 

Meanwhile, Karamatullah and Qudratullah have appealed to the Pakistani President General Musharraf to allow their mother to stay with them in Pakistan.

 

RETURN TO HOME