DECEMBER 22: The mother of Parveen Kumar, a former Asian champion in the hammer-throw event who played Bhima in teleserial Mahabharat, was ``abducted'' by his sub-inspector father from a Muslim caravan at the time of Partition.Nothing is known about the fate of the other members of Reshma's family.Pritam Singh, a retired deputy director of agriculture, migrated from Pakistan at the time of Partition, but his father, sister and an aunt (father's sister) couldn't come with him. Their fate is still unknown.THERE are hundreds of such families on both sides of the border, swinging between the pain of separation and the hope of reuniting with their beloved. The Jati Umra Indo-Pak Parivar Milap Trust hopes to bring them out of their misery.Founded by former Goa governor Colonel Partap Singh Gill and Arjan Singh, who is a family friend of deposed Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif, the trust led a group of six such divided families to their relatives in Pakistan in April last year.A second group likely togo to Pakistan shortly would take along two Muslim women who were married into Sikh families in Bhullar village in Tarn Taran sub-division. They were reportedly left behind here at a very young age when their families migrated.Khurshida, renamed Gurnam Kaur, is among such women. ``I remember my parents, but memories have faded a little with time,'' she says. She has volunteered to accompany the group leaving for Pakistan in the hope of meeting her brother there. Inayta Bai, another Muslim woman now renamed Ram Kaur, was delighted when she came to know through trust members that her sister is alive in Pakistan. Talking to The Indian Express, Arjan Singh said there were many more Muslim women in Punjab who felt shy of disclosing their identity due to social reasons. He also informed that Sardar Ali (now Sardar Singh) and Deen Mohammed (now Diwan Singh) were the other two Muslims who were going to Lahore for a possible reunion.Niranjan Singh, a resident of Panipat in Haryana, who had accompanied the trustmembers last time, managed to meet his sister Jeeto, now married to a Muslim. Kartar Singh, then a 10-year-old Muslim boy named Manna, was not so lucky, his mother having expired by the time he reached Pakistan. Arjan Singh said Manna had taken shelter in a gurdwara in Khadoor Sahib near Tarn Taran at the time of Partition.In 1965, he received a letter from her mother but couldn't visit Pakistan as he didn't know the necessary visa formalities. He now wants to spend the rest of his life in Khadoor Sahib.Arjan Singh said hundreds of Hindu and Sikh girls who were either abducted by Muslims or had failed to accompany their families to India were still alive in Pakistan and vice-versa. The Jati Umra Indo-Pak Parivar Milap trust, hoping to reunite such families, was the brainchild of Gill. Singh himself belongs to Jati Umra, which also happens to be the native village of Sharif. Arjan Singh said Gill was now urging the Pakistani Embassy to grant visas to all families who wanted to visit their relatives inPakistan. Recalling his visit last time, he said the Pakistan Prime Minister had assured to help them locate the missing families and, for this purpose, a branch of the trust has been opened in the Jati Umra village of Pakistan.
