Ten members of two persecuted Bangladesh Hindu families cross border, seek shelter

Amidst continuous atrocities on minority Hindus in neighbouring Bangladesh, a group of ten people persecuted Hindus including children and women escaped from their native land and were forced to enter Indian territory.

Police sources said that based on specific information, a contingent of police from Ambassa police station under Dhalai district on Saturday morning raided at Ambassa Railway station and as per their information, police traced a group of ten people including children and women were waiting at the platform of the station to board into a long distance train.

Seeing the suspected movements of these people, police detained them and when asked their nationality, they revealed that they are from  Dhanpur village of Kishoreganj district of Bangladesh and were forced to cross the international border through Kamalpur on Friday.

Two families of Shankar Chandra Sarkar and Manojit Sarkar, both are own brothers entered into India through Kamalpur border with their old father, wives and children. After a night long walk through jungles, they somehow managed to reach Kamalpur town and through an auto-rickshaw arrived near Ambassa Railway station on Saturday morning.

Speaking with media persons inside Ambassa police station, these persecuted Hindus revealed that “We had no other option as long became miserable due to continuous torture by majority people in Bangladesh.”

Since August 5th and after caretaker government led by Mohammad Yunus in Bangladesh, the atrocities on minority Hindus became intolerable and often they faced attacks on their workplaces and their children were abused in their schools, even women from their families were unable to go outside of their homes, said Shankar Chandra Sarkar and added that their daughters and wives often faces molestation by radical Muslims.

He said that local leaders have also threatened them to leave their village with dire consequences and they were also forced to sell a portion of their land house with a minimum amount and major parts of their land were occupied by some fundamentalists.

“In such circumstances, we have no other option to leave Bangladesh and to enter India for livelihood,” said Sarkar.

Folding his hands, Sarkar and his other family persons urge the police and other authorities to allow them to stay in India and they will be able to maintain their lives through working with dignity.

Another family head, Manojit Sarkar said they will not ever return back to Bangladesh and if Indian authorities put them behind bars, they are ready to go, but will not return back to Bangladesh.

While, police said that the detained Bangladeshi revealed that they wanted to Silchar town of Assam through train and had plans to settle there for their livelihood. Police also said that they have detained all Bangladesh nationals under Passport Act and will take further steps as per the law.