Reunited with bro in Kartarpur, Pak sisters want to visit village

Fatehgarh Churian: Seventy years after losing his mother to Partition, it was amid the move

to open Kartarpur corridor that octogenarian Beant Singh was reunited with his half sisters in Pakistan. Now, he want them to come to

India and visit their ancestral Paracha village near Fategharh Churian.

An agriculturist, Beant who sports a Nihang attire, had gone to Pakistan to celebrate the 449 birth anniversary of the first Sikh master, Guru Nanak Dev.

“I had never even thought that I would meet my half sisters Mairaj and Ulfat in my lifetime, but Waheguru made it happen and that too at his own place. I now want them to see the village where our mother got married to my father Bahadur Singh,” said Beant, a catch in his voice .

Lakhwinder Singh, Beant’s son, said that his grandfather had married a Muslim woman Allaha Rakhi who stayed back in India after Partition. “A few years later, the Indian and Pakistan governments, under a pact, decided to reunite people with their families and Allaha Rakhi went to her family in Pakistan, leaving behind a son and a daughter,” he said.

Beant said his father had received a letter from Allaha Rakhi a few years later informing him that she had been married off in Pakistan and had two daughters.

About a decade ago, Makhan Singh, a family acquaintance went to Pakistan and traced the sisters. The family has remained in touch with the Mairaz and Ulfat since then. Mairaj and Ulfat live in Shadra and Sheikhupura villages, respectively.

Beant said he was in touch with his half sisters over phone and they arrived at Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib to meet him. “I was an emotional reunion, our eyes welled up as we embraced each other.”

Now Mairaj and Ulfat are keen to come here. “We are planning to visit India and meet rest of our family as soon as possible, said Mairaj Bibi while talking to TOI over phone from Pakistan on Tuesday.

Beant said he can only appeal to the Indian to give them a visa to travel to India and visit their family.