MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 6: Seven relatives of a 100-year-old Kashmiri Sikh who died in September and was cremated in occupied Kashmir have arrived here with his ashes, which they will throw into Jhelum River on Wednesday in fulfillment of his last wish.

Sant Singh Teg was born in Hattian Dupatta, a small town in Azad Kashmir some 25kms from Muzaffarabad, on April 13, 1907. He left his native town soon after partition and settled in occupied Jammu.

The father of four sons and four daughters, from two wives, was injured in a road accident two years ago and remained confined to bed since then. The centenarian, however, died on Sept 16 after his condition aggravated due to a fall from horseback.

Sant Teg came to Pakistan in 1962 on the invitation of President Ayub Khan, but did not visit Azad Kashmir. “The yearning to revisit the place of his birth was alive till his death,” Partab Singh, a son of his, told Dawn on phone from Hattian Dupatta.

Partab Singh, his elder brother Gurpartab Singh, sister Nirlet Kour, brother-in-law Harbhajan Singh, niece Mandeep Kour and cousin Jagjeet Singh Sudan and his wife Surinder Kour Sudan crossed into Pakistan from the Wagah border on Saturday. They travelled to Hattian Dupatta on Monday for a reunion with their relatives here who had converted to Islam after partition.

”Ever since my father left his birthplace in 1947, he had not been able to revisit it. He had a great longing for this place where he spent the best years of his life,” Partab Singh said.

Mr Teg’s family, according to his account, owned a transport company before partition and he had driven his buses countless times on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad-Rawalpindi road.

”After the launch of the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service in April 2005, my father’s dormant desire to visit his birthplace reawakened, but he could not materialise it for one reason or the other,” the son said.

Balraj Puri, A Jammu-based journalist and human rights activist, got in touch with AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan in May urging him to use his good offices to facilitate Mr Teg’s visit.

But before that could happen the centenarian passed away.

”We have brought his ashes and want to throw them into Jhelum river in compliance with last wish,” Partab Singh said.

The last rites would be performed near Domel, the confluence of Jhelum and Neelum rivers in Muzaffarabad, sometime in the afternoon, he said.

Partab Singh said AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan had assured him he would attend the last rites.

”My father had many Muslim friends in Azad Kashmir and I will be grateful if they turn up at the occasion,” he said.