*104-year-old dying to meet his daughters TRIBUNE INDIA | May 26,2008 http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=501449&category=Frontend&Country=MAIN

Jammu: Before I close my eyes forever, I want to see my daughters for the last time, and I do hope that the ongoing dialogue process between India and Pakistan would help to fulfill my last desire,” says 104-year-old Ishar Singh, whose family got divided during the Partition.

Ishar Singh, now a resident of Jammu, had a happy family living in Pakistan before the Partition, but the line of separation that drew between the two nations, divided his family forever.

A retired transporter, he was in the Indian side of the border when two nations emerged from a single country and his wife along with seven children --- four sons and three daughters --- were left in the Pakistani side of the border.

“I tried to locate them and get them back but all my efforts turned futile, as now they had become the citizens of Pakistan,” says Ishar Singh.

His family in Pakistan converted to Islam and his sons immigrated to the United States where he got a chance to meet them many years later. His three daughters still live in Faislabad in Pakistan.

After 28 years of struggle, Ishar Singh got a chance to visit Lahore in 1975 where he met his daughters. As many as 33 years have passed since, but because of visa restrictions he could not visit them again.

“We lost so many people and so many families were separated by the Partition. For the past six decades I haven’t been able to sleep comfortably as I still remember and miss my family,” says a shattered Ishar Singh.

“We are unable to meet as it has been difficulty to get visas; the Indian government too has not been giving us visas to meet each other,” he adds.

Singh, who has five children from his second wife, is always surrounded by the family members, but he feels that somehow his family picture was not complete.

Not only Singh himself but also his daughters in Pakistan have been struggling hard to meet their father. Every time they apply for a visa, their request has been turned down.

“They too want to meet their father. They tried hard to get visas but whenever they applied, they were refused,” says Satwant Kaur, daughter-in-law of Ishar Singh.

Though the high-level dialogue process between the two nations is over and the next round scheduled in July, the improving relations between the two nations has given a reason for people like Ishar Singh to stay alive.