Seventy-five years after she was separated from her family during violence at the time of partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan, a woman born in a Sikh family who was adopted and raised by a Muslim couple met her brothers from India at Kartarpur in Pakistan's Punjab province, thanks to the visa-free corridor that allows pilgrims from India to visit the final resting place of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak. 

At the time of partition, Mumtaz Bibi, who was born in a Sikh family, was an infant who was lying on the body of her mother killed by a mob, the Dawn newspaper reported.

A Muslim couple named Muhammad Iqbal and Allah Rakhi adopted the baby girl and raised her as their own daughter, naming her Mumtaz Bibi. After partition, Iqbal settled at Varika Tian village in Sheikhupura district of Pakistan's Punjab province.

Iqbal and his wife did not tell Mumtaz that she was not their daughter. Two years ago, when Iqbal's health suddenly turned bad he told Mumtaz that she was not his real daughter and she actually belonged to a Sikh family.

After Iqbal's death, Mumtaz and her son Shahbaz began searching for her family through social media. They knew the name of Mumtaz's real father and the village Sidrana, in Patiala district of India's Punjab, where they settled after being forced to leave their ancestral home in Pakistan.

Both the families got connected through social media. Subsequently, Mumtaz's brothers Gurumeet Singh, Narendra Singh and Amrinder Singh, accompanied by other family members, reached Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur. Mumtaz along with her family members also reached there and met her lost brothers after 75 years in an emotion reunion, the Dawn report said.

The Kartarpur corridor links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, with the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in Punjab. The four km-long corridor - the result of a rare agreement between India and Pakistan - provides visa-free access to Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit the holy Sikh pilgrimage site in Pakistan where Guru Nanak spent his last years.

(SAM)