An interesting human interest story about the links between people from Indian Punjab and Pakistani Punjab.
The closing of the India-Pakistan border 18 months ago has caused agony for Punjabi Muslims. But moves to restore road links have brought hope to the Muslim residents of one town in the Indian state of Punjab.
Malerkotla is the state’s only Muslim majority area – with Muslims making up about 70% of the total residents.
A former Muslim princely state during the colonial era, it is the only place in Punjab in which riots did not take place when India and Pakistan were partitioned in 1947.
Most of Malerkotla’s Muslims have close ties with Pakistan, often with families split up on either side of the border.
Many others traditionally choose to get married to distant relatives across the border, a common practice in Islam.
But the closing of the border in December 2001, after an attack on the Indian parliament, brought an end to those ties.
