Siblings separated by the 1947 Partition and reunited a few weeks ago in 2022, Muhammad Siddique and his younger brother Habib Khan were finally able to meet in the visa-free Kartarpur Corridor, and a video of their reunion went viral on the internet. The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has now issued a visa for Habib Khan in India to be able to visit his long-lost older brother and relatives in Pakistan.
The younger brother now requires an NOC from the Indian authorities, so as to be able to travel past the Attari-Wagah border crossing and enter Pakistan.
Known as Saka Khan in his village of Parewar in India’s Punjab, Habib Khan had been separated from his father, brother and other close relatives at the age of only two. Muhammad was taken to the newly created Pakistan by their mother, but Habib stayed in his hometown at the request of his mother. She could not have known that this would soon become a permanent separation.
Habib’s dream of reuniting with his family remained unfulfilled all his life. Finally, in 2019, a Youtube video by Nasir Dhillon showed the elder brother in Pakistan speaking about the separation of his family during Partition. In the younger brother’s village in India, the video was watched and the speaker identified as his older sibling.
The heart-warming video of their reunion in the Kartarpur Corridor was widely shared on the internet and led to efforts to allow them to meet, even at a time when political and military tensions have made travel between India and Pakistan very difficult.
