AMRITSAR: Bashira Bibi alias Lajwanti (80), who was separated from her family during the 1947 Partition of India has urged the Government of India to grant permanant permission to stay at her ancestral home in village Ramdass in this district. She had left her home before partition. She had reached Ramdass from Pakistan few days back.

The Village Ramdas is nearly 55 kilometers away from the holy city of Amritsar and exactly located on the edge of Indo Pak international border and fencing on international border is hardly few yards away.

“I was the resident of this village (Ramdas), since I was born here and never knew that I would not be allowed to visit my own house that took 58 years after loosing the golden period of my youth in wait to get visa to visit Indian soil. Now let me die in India, it would be possible if Government of India allow me stay here as I don’t want to go back to Pakistan”, she said with moist eyes.

Telling her tale of woe Bashira said, “Tragedy in her peaceful life appeared during the year of 1947 when there were no distinction of India and Pakistan and she was staying at village Ramdas. One day I went to visit my kin at Samtota village in Fasilabad district now in Pakistan, never knowing the facts the boundaries would be drawn. The one side of the boundary would be India and another would be Pakistan. But I was trapped in the boundaries confusion. I was separated from my three sons, who were now in Ramdass village, but now in a different country except one Swarn Das”. 

“ I have seen very hard days in Pakistan, even two square meal was a distant dream for me, since my relatives in Pakistan to whom I visited during 1947 were no more for the last two decades and I was longing to visit India and ultimately I got visa for India on June 8, 2001, but unfortunately for the state of Himachal Pardesh instead of Punjab”, said Bashira.

After the struggle of five years during stay in India, I became able to come in Punjab to visit Ramdas village in Amritsar from Himachal, Bashira quipped.

In the beginning, she was sent to Palampur, where she spent five years, then, she came in contact with her family. The sons of Lajwanti, however, had managed to bring her to Damtal at Pathankot (border of two states Himachal and Punjab). Earlier the authorities in Himachal Pradesh did not allow her to enter Punjab as she was lacking necessary permission.

Swarn Dass, son of Lajwanti who is municipal councilor presently, said he never thought Bashira could ever visit India.