Lahore: A pre-partition enmity between two families in Pakistan's Punjab province that claimed 125 lives has ended after the two sides struck a reconciliation deal.
45-year-old Sharifan Bibi and 20 members of her family were present at the police station yesterday to sign the "reconciliation deal" with the rival group.
Hugging a woman of rival group with tears rolling down on her checks, Sharifan said, "Although I have forgiven the murderers of my son for the sake of peace between the two groups but let me tell you it was not easy for me to do so."
Like Sharifan, many woman in both groups have lost either father, uncles, brothers or sons in the fight.
Some 70 years ago, the enmity began between the Nubha and Jamalay groups of Kasur district, some 40 kilometers from Lahore, when Muhammad Din of the latter was killed by three men of the former.
"The enmity of one generation picked up by the next spilling the blood of more than 125 people since partition," senior police officer Haider Ashraf told PTI.
Ashraf and other senior officers of Punjab police brought the rival groups to the negotiating table and made them agree to shun their decades-old enmity.
"It was not easy to make them agree to leave enmity and live peacefully in their district," Ashraf said, adding the elders of both groups had pledged to ensure that none of their family members indulge in the old issues and treat the other group members as 'friends'.
