Separated by partition, siblings reunite after 75 years at Pakistan's Kartarpur

A brother and his sister, who were separated after the partition in 1974, were reunited, thanks to the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor.

Gurdaspur (Punjab): An octogenarian woman who was separated from her younger brother during the partition in 1974 was finally able to meet him after 75 years, courtesy of the Kartarpur Corridor that allows Indians to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Punjab province.

It was an emotional moment for those present at the Gurudwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan when the siblings reunited after seven and a half decades much to the joy of their family members. 81-year-old Mahinder Kaur along with her family members had gone to Gurdwara Shri Kartarpur Sahib via the Kartarpur Corridor. At the same time, her brother 78-year-old Sheikh Abdullah Aziz came to Kartarpur Sahib with his family from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Upon the reunion, both Kaur and Aziz hugged each other and also expressed grief at the death of their parents. The two originally lived in India before the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. The family of one Bhajan Singh got separated after the partition. While Aziz got settled in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the remaining members of his family stayed in Punjab in India.

Aziz said he had been separated from his family and was desperate to meet them. Aziz, who converted to Islam, said he tried to contact his family members on several occasions but was not successful. Social media also played a key role in uniting the siblings. Their family members said they found a post on social media about the separation of a man and his sister during the partition. The post helped the two families connect with each other and through it, they came to know that Mahinder Kaur and Aziz Azad were siblings.

The Kartarpur administration garlanded both families and presented sweets to them. The two families dined together, gave gifts to each other and visited the Darbar Sahib Kartarpur. Lauding the Governments of India and Pakistan, Mahinder Kaur said the Kartarpur Corridor Project was not a reuniting people.

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.