By IANS,
Chandigarh : After a long wait of 61 years, Pakistani national Mohammad Yusuf finally returned to his native village Kamalpur, near Rupnagar town, Friday. The 80-year-old Yusuf was accompanied by his son Arshad who is a DSP in Pakistan police.
Yusuf’s family migrated to Pakistan in 1947 after India’s partition. It was an emotional reunion for Yusuf meeting his childhood mates, Jaggu Ram and Ram Sarup, who had especially come from Kurukshetra town in Haryana to meet their old pal.
Yusuf was honoured by the villagers at a function held in the village gurdwara Sunday.
While recalling old memories, Yusuf said things had changed manifold in his old village. “It is all due to the efforts of my son that I got a chance to visit my motherland once again.”
Yusuf was a big landlord when he left India but was not allotted any land in Pakistan. He was forced to work as a labourer for about 20 years and after that he was allotted 25 acres of land in Pakistan.
Yusuf said he studied at Jhallian village near here and used to bathe in the Sirhind canal near the village. He visited the Sirhind canal, and the place where his house and school were situated. “It was a horrible time of widespread violence and riots all around during 1947,” pointed out Yusuf.