Indian Sikh women meets Muslim sons after 59 years

The story of Harbans Kaur is just one of the thousands of untold stories of partition of the sub-continent. It is a tale of unimaginable suffering and the ordeal a woman went through for over half-a-century.

Kaur, 75, a Sikh woman was married to a Muslim belonging to Muzaffarabad before partition and had two sons, Karamat and Qudrat. But during the exchange of population between India and Pakistan, the army sent her out from pakistan as she was termed a 'foreigner'. Her sons, who were six and seven years old then, remained in Pakistan.

Her husband, an armyman Sakhiullah, could not stop her forced deportation. She was handed over to her family who arranged her marriage with one, Sikh, Kaur Singh, who died a few years later. All these years Harbans Kaur dreamt that one day she would see her sons again but had no idea how to search them.

Two years back she went to Pakistan on pilgrimage to Panja Sahib where she met another pilgrim Jassi Singh, on whose taviz, she could read Muzaffarabad. Singh promised to her that he would do his best to look for her sons. In 2005, he ultimately succeeded (a professor recognised the old photo given by her) and Kaur spoke to her sons on phone.

Once again she applied for visa. The mother and sons met after nearly 60 years during the Guru Nanak's birth anniversary celebrations. Now Kaur's sons don't want her to go back but the duration of visa has expired. Politics is standing between the mother and her sons.

Poet Zahida Hina narrated this emotional story. 'When a Samjhauta Express' will be run for such Hindu, Sikh and Muslim women in India and Pakistan', she asks, adding that 'in rishtoN ke saamne mazhab, reet-rivaaj sab haar jaate haiN'.