Punished for love of Pakistan
Direct flights from Bangladesh to Pakistan have started after many years and there has been jubilation and celebrations in both countries.
After the fall of Hasina Wajid regime in Dhaka Pakistan and Bangladesh are getting closer yet in this renewed feeling of friendship nobody seems to remember the tragic fate of over three million stranded Pakistani citizens called Biharis in Bangladesh. These poor former Pakistani citizens are being punished for their unconditional love of Pakistan for daring to support the Pakistan army in 1971. These poor people have been languishing in shanty towns in appalling conditions, denied citizenship and living like stateless people since the last fifty four years or so and their plight goes unnoticed by the Pakistan Govt., the United Nations and the world community.
The aftermath of the 1971 war was a chaotic period for the stranded Pakistanis or Biharis in Bangladesh. Thousands of them were gunned down or slaughtered by jubilant or victorious cadres of the Mukti Bahini and the survivors were then crammed into concentration camps on the pattern of Nazi Concentration camps in Europe.
They became stateless people overnight because they were denied basic rights of citizenship by newly formed Govt. of Bangladesh in Dhaka and Pakistan too refused to recognize that these people were legally the citizens of Pakistan. In 1973 a tripartite agreement was signed between Pakistan, India and Bangladesh that resulted in the repatriation of prisoners of war and stranded people of both countries and as a result about 121,000 Bengalis were repatriated to Bangladesh and 108000 non Bengalis were airlifted........
