Separated at partition, brothers meet after 74 years at Kartarpur

Besides pilgrimage, resting place of Guru Nanak becomes reunion site for families divided in 1947

It took 74 years for two brothers to meet, despite just living 220 kilometres away from each other.

Separated at partition, Siddique, who is in his 80s and from the village of Bogran, Faisalabad, hugged his younger brother Habib (nickname Sikka), from Bathinda, at Kartarpur Corridor on Wednesday.

Habib is still Muslim and living in a haveli of a Sikh farmer in Phule Wala village in Indian Punjab.

“Phule Wala is a village of Siddique and Habib’s maternal family,” Nasir Dhillion, who runs Punjabi Lehar channel on YouTube told the Minute Mirror on phone from Kartarpur – the resting place of the founder of Sikh religion Guru Nanak.

The corridor near Narowal is 4.7 kilometres from the international border between Pakistan and India near Gurdaspur. Guru Nanak spent the last 18 years of his life at the site which was inaugurated by the premiers of both countries on their respective sides in November 2019.

The entry point was closed in March 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19, but re-opened on the occasion of Guru Nanak’s 552nd birth anniversary in November 2021.

Hundreds of followers of the Sikh religion visit the holy place every day. Indian Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Channi and famous cricketer-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu were among the dignitaries who came to Gurdwara Kartarpur on Nanak Devji’s 552nd birth anniversary. Besides pilgrimage, Kartarpur has become a meeting place for families who were separated in the bloody partition of Punjab in 1947.

“Habib is two years younger from Siddique and went to Phule Wala with her mother during the wave of partition. Siddique and other family members had to fled Pakistan due to violent attacks by extremist mobs on their native village in Bathinda,” Nasir said.

“We went to record a partition story in Bogran in 2018 and there we met Siddique who requested us to find his younger brother [Habib],” he added.

Siddique, said Nasir, had the firm belief then that his brother was alive and lived in India. Though, Nasir added, Siddique had never heard of any news of Habib in seven decades.

“We put his message on our channel [Punjabi Lehar] and within days received a message from Dr. Jagsir Singh of Phule Wala.

“Habib is still alive and people of Phule Wala knew his story of separation,” Nasir told Minute Mirror, quoting Jagsir.

Firstly, he said, they arranged their video call on social media and it took them almost two years to arrange a physical meeting.

“You can understand…74 years…emotions were high…we all cried,” Nasir said, adding that Habib was accompanied by friends and elders of his village while Siddique also went to Kartarpur along with his sons and other family members.

Social media has become a viable tool to provide an opportunity of virtual meetings and sharing of thoughts between millions of people in Pakistan and India. There are hundreds of pages on Facebook and dozens of channels on YouTube which share stories from the pre-partition era and the division that occurred in 1947.

Channels like ‘Punjabi Lehar’, ‘Ik Pind Punjab Da’, ‘Desi Infotainer’, ‘Sanjha Punjab 1947’, ‘Indus Diaries’, ‘Sub Da Punjab’, ’Ek C Punjab’ and many others are playing a role which the governments of both sides failed to play over the decades.

Siddique, Habib, Nasir, Lovely Singh, Dr. Jagsir Singh and dozens of people who gathered at Kartarpur appealed to the governments of both sides to soften the visa policy and allow people of Pakistan and India to meet each other without hassle.