Man who lost 22 relatives in Partition finds nephew in Pakistan | India News

Sarwan Singh, 92, is set to meet his nephew at Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib on Monday.

SANDHAM: The heart has its reasons. A 92-year-old native of Punjab who lost 22 members of his extended family to the carnage of Partition but never gave up hope of finding the missing 23rd is set to be reunited with his long-lost nephew at Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib on Monday, 75 years since they last saw each other.
Mohan Singh, who was six at the time, is now Abdul Khaliq, but neither passage of time nor the involuntary change in his identity would dim his uncle Sarwan Singh’s joy at this lost-and-found tale’s denouement.
Sarwan, settled in Canada with his son but living in Punjab since the pandemic struck, has two YouTubers on either side of the border to thank for tracing his nephew.
Harjit Singh of Punjab’s Jandialawho has been documenting stories of Partition on YouTube, initiated the search for Mohan around eight months ago when he interviewed the latter’s uncle. Five months after he posted the video, Pakistani YouTuber Mohd Javid Iqbal told the story of Khaliq, as a child of Partition separated from his Hindu Khatri family. One of the nuggets of information highlighted in the interview was that Abdul had two thumbs on one hand.
“Gurdev Singh Bath in Australia happened to see both videos and called me around 45 days ago to talk about Khaliq. Then Mohd Javid went to Khaliq while I visited Sarwan’s place. We arranged a video call,” Harjit said. Sarwan asked Khaliq about the birthmark on his left thigh, which confirmed his identity. “They started talking to each other on their own after that first video call, leading to the planned reunion at Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib,” Harjit said.
Sarwan’s family lived at Chak 37/12 L in the erstwhile Montgomery district of present-day Pakistan when the horrors of Partition struck.