Humanitarian Crisis: Bangladeshi Voices From The Border

As the situation in Bangladesh amid the ongoing anti-quota protests continues to intensify, several Bangladeshi nationals have arrived in India.

Bangladesh has imposed a curfew, and the authorities have disabled mobile internet services nationwide, citing the need to curb disinformation, reported The Washington Post. This has caused grave difficulties for the residents.
Mohammed Mehdi Hasan Khan, a Bangladeshi resident said the situation is very grim there.

“I came here in India on a medical visa for my mother’s treatment. We have a family business back home,” he told ANI.
Khan added, “The country is in big trouble. Since the network is off, we cannot access news and know what is happening around us.”

Amid the ongoing countrywide protests in Bangladesh against job quotas, Border Security Forces (BSF) carried out security checks at the Indian Immigration check post in Fulbari, Jalpaiguri.

A total of 245 Indian nationals, including 125 Indian nationals and 13 Nepali students, arrived on Friday through the Gede border crossing in West Bengal.

The India High Commission in Dhaka has been coordinating with local authorities in Bangladesh to provide adequate security to students who are keen on travelling to India, sources said on Friday. The Indian mission, in coordination with BSF and the Bureau of Immigration, is facilitating Indian students who are travelling back to India from Bangladesh.

The protests in Bangladesh have been driven by demands for reform of the country’s quota system for civil service jobs, which reserves positions for specific groups, including descendants of those who participated in the 1971 War of Independence against Pakistan.

Meanwhile, in Assam, Semim Sultana, mother of Asif Hussain, a student at a medical college in Bangladesh who amid the ongoing countrywide protests in Bangladesh, crossed the border to come back to India, said they were very worried for the past few days amid the unrest.

“My son told me that the situation there was not good, so they are coming back…10 to 15 people booked a vehicle and entered Kolkata…From Sealdah they are coming by train…we were very worried…around 5 students from Dhubri are studying there,” Hussain told ANI.

Earlier on Friday, the Indian High Commission in Dhaka issued an urgent advisory for Indian citizens and students in Bangladesh to avoid non-essential travel and minimize movement outside their residences due to the escalating unrest in the country.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in its weekly briefing, said that all Indian nationals in Bangladesh are safe and New Delhi is in touch with officials there while closely monitoring the situation, said in the wake of ongoing violent protests” in the neighbouring country.

“As you are aware, there are protests” which are happening in Bangladesh. We have around 8500 students and somewhere around 15,000 Indian nationals’ resident in the country,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

WITH INPUTS FROM ANI