Lost and found, after 77 years

ISLAMABAD: Along the Radcliffe Line drawn in August 1947 lie buried many hidden stories of Punjab’s Partition that are part of the living histories of South Asia. Some have been told, others remain untold. One incredible story — of violence, loss and final reunion — revealed itself recently in the remote border village of Bandala in Ferozepur. In this village, on the Tarn Taran road, en route to the Attari-Wagah border, lives Mahinder Singh Gill, a calm 87-year-old man with a troubled, silenced history, whom an Indian history teacher met a few months ago, Tribune India reported.

She says Gill opened up about the horrors of 1947 and the ensuing trauma and dislocation that he experienced. He revealed that in the September 1947 carnage, he, a young boy, was separated from his Muslim family, his parents, four brothers and a sister, from the village of Bulloke in Zira tehsil of Ferozepur district. He disclosed that his father’s name was Chiragh Din, a village headman (nambardar) of two villages belonging to the Bhatti Rajputs, and his mother’s name was Fatima. Gill was 10 years old in 1947.

During the turmoil, he recalled, he was brutally separated from his beloved and protective father, who was holding his hand, while he saw his younger sister drown in the canal. The young lad was brought to Bandala village on the Punjab border, where he was raised by Sikh parents. Gill revealed unequivocally that his original name was Muhammad Shafi. His new parents named him Mahinder Singh Gill. And after that, he quietly settled into a new life in the eastern Punjab borderlands. The separated family could never meet.

The writer says she found a Pakistani Punjabi YouTube channel and noted there was a video interview with Muhammad Shafi’s lost family — his two brothers and their children — in Pakistan by Abbas Khan Lashari, entitled “Veer di Udeek” (Waiting for the Brother). The interview revealed how Muhammad Shafi was tragically separated from his parents, Chiragh Din and Fatima, and brothers in Bulloke village in Ferozepur district in 1947.

The history teacher contacted Lashari through his YouTube channel. He again narrated the lost brothers’ version of events, which matched Gill’s testimony. Lashari emphasised that they had been looking for Muhammad Shafi all these years!

She arranged a Shafi’s Zoom meeting with his lost family with the help of Lashari. During the meeting, Gill broke down. Later, his expressions were difficult to understand. He looked shocked, but was also smiling and composed; he wanted to know more. He was jubilant and yet inconsolable. His eyes were longing, waiting. Echoes of surprise and sighs of ‘Shafi’, ‘Shafi’ from brothers and cousins across the border were loud. A physical reunion between Mahinder Singh Gill and his family in Pakistan is awaited. The Kartarpur corridor is not far. Nor is Nankana Sahib.