Initially happy at the fall of the “dictatorial” regime of Sheikh Hasina, most Bangladeshis who had come to Kolkata for medical or other reasons are now praying for peace to return. This because they are now a stranded lot as all the trains and bus services between the two countries have been stopped for indefinite period.
“How can we go back home because both Maitryee and Bandhan Express have been suspended and the buses too are not plying … if we have to go we have to make break journey first by crossing the border on foot and then by taking auto-rickshaws, local buses… and even that is not certain,” says Saheb Kamal (name changed) a Bangladesh tourist who had come to India to visit relatives.
“I am waiting for peace to return so that I can go back home,” he said, adding even flights have been cancelled between the two countries.
“We are stranded… we are sure of our families’ safety back in Bangladesh… but we are really concerned about our minority friends who have often been so good to us often arranging for our stay in Kolkata… at present I have postponed my journey and will wait for the things to cool down,” said Rafikul Rehman.
Rehman come to India for treatment of his mother a heart and kidney patient.
With money drying up steadily he only hopes peace to return fast. “Still I can bank on my Hindu friends’ relatives who have assured to host us but what about those who are putting up in hotels,” he wonders appealing to powers that be for peace. “Here they are hosting us and there we are killing them … it is shameful,” he says.
But Ajit Biswas (name changed for the purpose of security) a member of Bangladeshi minority community is not so confident. He has left his kin back in Dhaka and wants to meet them urgently but there is no way he can go back lest he is killed en route. “I want to return home immediately but I fear for my life … the train and bus services have stopped and I have to cross over via Gede or Petrapol border and take auto-rickshaws and buses to Jessore or Khulna wherefrom I will be able to get a conveyance for Dhaka … but that is too long a journey fraught with risks as I have come to know that some of my friends have already gone missing … either they are underground or they have been killed. Now I am standing nowhere.”
Abdul Rehman Bulbul of Satkhira is a staunch baiter of Sheikh Hasina and is immensely happy about her fall but he too feels stranded now. “I was happy but now with the situation going out of control in Bangladesh I too am not sure of reaching my home safely … I don’t know how our minority friends or those from the Awami League are,” he says insisting “not all Awami League people are bad but the regime they backed was really, really dictatorial.”
Fatima Biswas (name changed) is another student from Narayanganj who had come to see her friend in Kolkata too wants to return as “my tourist visa will end in a week’s time,” but is not sure how to get it extended as “it is extremely difficult to return as protestors have become animals … If being a Muslim I am afraid to return home alone how must the minorities be feeling there … I can only imagine their situation … I have many of them.”
On the way the houses of some Bangladesh cricketers have been ransacked another tourist from that country refusing to share his name says, “Believe us … Bangladeshis are not like this … our forefathers never taught this to us … this is not rejoicing but absolute madness that we see in some middle-eastern countries or Africa … this must stop … the minorities must be protected … we have been a secular people … at least the urban areas are definitely like that … the progressives may be a bit subdued by this violence but believe me they will again come up … you can see the communists and the Left taking out big rallies in Dhaka, Jessore and Cittagong for the sake of communal harmony.” He has come to Kolkata with his wife for her treatment but is not confident of leaving immediately.
A baiter of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (but not his father Sheikh Mujiboor Rehman) Bulbul Hussein said, “even I wanted this dictatorial government should go but not at the cost of the lives of so many innocent people including the minorities … the students who are at the forefront now should stop it… if we being the members of majority community are so much concerned then imagine what the minorities are facing now … instead of justifying the violence as initial aftermath of mass uprising the leaders should think of bringing peace or else Bangladesh will earn a bad name worldwide … business will dry up and jobs too.”
Hundreds of people have been killed and many temples and houses of the minority community and the former ruling Awami League have been torched in the present crisis that saw the fall of Sheikh Hasina Government.
