Inside a museum of broken memories and families divided by war

Mohammad Ali was in his early 30s when the India-Pakistan war of 1971 separated him from his wife for ever. Overnight, the couple found themselves on opposite sides of the LoC. While Ali was in Hunderman village, his wife had gone to her native Bilargo village -- and between them lay a newly drawn border that sealed their separation.

Over the years since Independence, Hunderman, 10 kilometres away from the main town of Kargil along the LoC, has witnessed four wars and a number of skirmishes -- all ending in broken homes and hearts for villagers like Ali. The village was part of Pakistan from 1949-71. After the '71 war, it came under India.

[caption id="attachment_228138" align="alignnone" width="910"] Octogenarian Mohammad Ali was in his early 30s when the India-Pakistan war of 1971 separated him from his wife for ever.[/caption]

While the world remembers the 1971 India-Pakistan war for the liberation of East Pakistan and the formation of Bangladesh, scores of families across the border in Ladakh were separated by a cruel stroke of fate. As five villages of Turtuk in Leh and Hunderman village in Kargil came under Indian control following the war, many from the same families became citizens of two separate countries divided by an unpredictable, shifting LoC.