75 years after partition of India and Pakistan, split families still suffer

Mr Ali Hasan Baqai and Mr Abid Hasan Baqai – brothers split for 75 years by the partition of India and Pakistan – talk to their families via a video call, words and tears binding them, but with no hope of a reunion.

KARACHI/NEW DELHI 

Thousands of families like the Baqai brothers remain divided three-quarters of a century after their countries were formed in the rupture of independence from British-ruled India in 1947.

“I felt that I can’t touch them,” younger brother Abid Hasan told Reuters in New Delhi. He added that it was good to see his brother in Karachi, but it was nothing like “a hug, a touch, shaking hands or talking to them” in person.