Emotions ran high when Shahid Rafiq Matoo of Nankana Sahib met his relatives from India in Kartarpur Sahib along with his family.
This was the first meeting between the two families since 1947.
A local newspaper reported that Matoo’s late grandfather Iqbal Masih had come to Pakistan with some family members in 1947. However, his grandfather’s brothers Bakhshish Masih and Inayat Masih remained in India.
He said that Inayat Masih had come to Pakistan 25 years ago but could not meet other members of the family. He added that his grandfather and his two brothers had also passed away but their families were finally reunited.
According to Shahid Rafique, his family members reside in Shahpur Dogran Tehsil, Anjala, Amritsar. Six members of his family, including his cousin Sonomoto, had come to Kartarpur Sahib via Kartarpur Corridor while eight members of Matoo’s family, including him, had gone there from Mananwala.
“These are very happy moments for us. We had contacts on WhatsApp but today was the first time we were meeting our family members,” he said.
Sonobatto from India said that Kartarpur Corridor has proved to be a corridor of peace and tranquility in both the countries through which families are getting together. He said that his grandfather Bakhshish Masih used to tell him that one of his brothers and other members of his family live in Pakistan.
It should be noted here that Sikh and Muslim families have met before, but this is the first time that a Christian family has met through the Kartarpur Corridor.
In January, Muhammad Siddique, 80, a resident of Bogra on the outskirts of Faisalabad, reunited with his younger brother Siddique who got separated from him in 1947.
Earlier, Muhammad Bashir, 91, from Narowal had also met his close friend Sardar Gopal Singh, 94. Both were separated during the Partition in 1947. In November 2021, the corridor reunited a man named Humayun with his nephew Muhammad Bashir, who got separated during the partition. The former came from Faisalabad while the latter arrived at the corridor from an Indian village named Taran.
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