An Indian lady’s long-cherished dream of visiting her ancestral house in Rawalpindi materialised when Pakistan granted 90-year-old Reena Chhibber Varma a visa and she or he arrived right here on Saturday by the use of the Wagah-Attari border, 75 years after leaving the rustic on the time of Partition.
Wet-eyed Varma, instantly after her arrival in Pakistan, left for her place of origin Rawalpindi, the place she’s going to seek advice from her ancestral residing Prem Niwas, her faculty, and adolescence pals.
In a video she uploaded on social media, Varma, who’s from Pune, stated her circle of relatives was once residing at the Devi Faculty Highway in Rawalpindi when the Partition came about.
“I studied on the Fashionable College. My 4 siblings had additionally long gone to the similar faculty. My brother and a sister additionally studied on the Gorden Faculty situated close to the Fashionable College,” she recalled.
“My elder siblings had Muslim pals who would come to our house as my father was once a person of revolutionary concepts and had no factor in conferences with girls and boys. Ahead of the Partition, there was once no such factor of Hindus and Muslims. This took place after the Partition,” she stated.
“Even supposing the Partition of India was once mistaken, now that it has took place, each the international locations must paintings in combination to ease visa restrictions for all people,” she stated.
The Pakistan Prime Fee in India, in a goodwill gesture, has issued a three-month visa to Varma, who was once simplest 15 years outdated when her circle of relatives moved to India right through the Partition in 1947.
Varma had carried out for a Pakistani visa in 1965 however didn’t get it then as tensions between the 2 neighbours have been prime on account of the conflict.
The aged lady stated she had expressed her need to seek advice from her ancestral house on social media ultimate yr.
Sajjad Haider, a Pakistani citizen, contacted her on social media and despatched her photographs of her house in Rawalpindi.
Lately, she once more carried out for a Pakistani visa which was once denied.
She then tagged her need to Pakistan’s Minister of State on International Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar who facilitated her visa to seek advice from her ancestral the town.
