After reuniting at Kartarpur corridor after 74 years, man gets visa to meet brother in Pakistan
The two men had been separated during the Partition in 1947.
The Pakistan High Commission on Friday issued a visa to Sikka Khan, the Indian man who was reunited with his brother from Pakistan earlier this month at the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor after 74 years.
Since the reunion, Khan had been requesting Pakistan for a visa so that he could meet his brother, Muhammed Siddique, in Pakistan, The Indian Express reported on Friday.
On January 13, videos of Khan’s reunion with his brother Siddique were posted across social media platforms. The two men had been separated during the Partition in 1947.
“The story of the two brothers is a powerful illustration of how the historic opening of the visa-free Kartarpur Sahib Corridor in November 2019 by Pakistan is bringing people closer to each other,” the Pakistan High Commission said on Twitter.
Efforts to reunite the brothers started in 2019 when a Pakistani YouTuber, Nasir Dhillon, uploaded Siddique’s appeal to help find his brother, according to The Indian Express. Dhillon runs a channel named Punjabi Lehar, which focuses on stories of Partition and shares Punjabi heritage.
Jagsir Singh, a rural medical practitioner from the Phulewala village in the Bathinda district, then contacted Dhillon. However, it took two years for the brothers to be able to meet.
Khan was only six months old when he was separated from his father and brother, according to The Times of India.
Villagers told the newspaper that he was visiting relatives with his mother when Partition was announced. In the confusion that ensued at that time, Khan and his mother could not join the rest of the family in present-day Pakistan, and so, they stayed in Bathinda.
Singh said that the visa from the Pakistan High Commission was like a dream come true for Sikka Khan. “Now he will be able to meet his near and dear ones,” he said, according to The Times of India. “I have accompanied Sikka to various places, and have felt his pain.”