GUJRANWALA: A villager near Nowshera Virkan in Gujranwala district has claimed to be about 150 years old, a claim that would make him by far the oldest person ever recorded, and that local residents and online commentators have greeted with scepticism.
Baba Muhammad Ramzan Bajwa, of Mari Bhandran village, says he was born in 1874 and that his beard was already greying at Partition. In a video interview, he recalled young Muslim men from his village escorting departing Sikh and Hindu families to trains and trucks bound for India, and named prominent Sikh landowners of the area and a generous Khatri moneylender, Buta Shah, who forgave debts to those who could not pay.
He said that while some influential Muslims in the area committed atrocities, most villagers protected their neighbours and saw them safely to the cities.
His age claim has not been documented. The oldest person whose age has been verified, France’s Jeanne Calment, died at 122. A local politician, Rana Mohammad Aslam, said on social media the man was probably 80 to 90.
Whatever his age, his memories of 1947 add to a growing collection of oral histories from Punjab’s villages about the months of Partition.
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