The Hindu : Special Id gifts from Pakistan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 03, 2004

National

National

Special Id gifts from Pakistan

By Our Staff Reporter

JAMMU, FEB. 2. The joy of eight-year-old Sabha knew no bounds when her Abha (father) gave her a special Id gift on phone from Pakistan today: He and mom would come soon to pick her up.

This will be a reunion after over two years of separation.

Sabha is a typical example of the tragedy which divided families on both sides of the India-Pakistan border have undergone, courtesy the prolonged tension between the two countries.

A resident of Gujranwala in Punjab Province, Sabha came on a vacation to her grandparents' house here in November 2001.

Her parents were to have picked her up after the vacation but it was not to be as on the 13th of December terrorists struck Parliament leading to snapping of road and air links with Pakistan.

Riaz Khan, Sabha's grandfather, says: "It was so hard to cajole her. She had to endure such pain. Her parents will soon come here along with her six-year-old brother, Saif Ali. The united family will return to Pakistan after this vacation."

There were scenes of jubilation in a house that is hardly 100 metres from Riaz Khan's house. The son-in-law of Riaz is coming from Sialkot to see two-year-old Aiza for the first time since her birth.

Little did Aiza's mother Andleep Kousar expect that a long separation from her husband awaited her when she came to her parents' house during pregnancy two years ago. She could not return after she was delivered of Aiza for the same reason.

Though the road links have been restored legal hurdles in rejoining her husband remain.

Aiza is an Indian by birth. She has to get an Indian citizenship first. Only then will the Pakistan High Commission grant her a visa. That in itself is a time-consuming exercise.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National