Pakistan’s forgotten ghetto residents: the Biharis of Bangladesh, Islam and Human Rights, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Human Rights

Pakistan’s forgotten ghetto residents: the Biharis of Bangladesh

Camp conditions are miserable, and large groups of families are often forced to share their living area with animals. They have no rights, limited job options and few economic prospects. They are refugees. Although they did not desert their country; their country appears to have forgotten them.

In pre-independence India, they were a Muslim minority in the region of Bihar. At the time of the partition in 1947, many moved to what was then East Pakistan. When civil war broke out between East and West Pakistan, the Biharis sided with the West. Subsequently in 1971, East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh, and these Biharis who had been loyal to Pakistan were denied citizenship because they were deemed as collaborators and had "supported the enemy".

Their first choice was to leave the new nation and go to the west, the part of Pakistan that still existed. They expected to be welcomed, and they waited. Almost four decades later, they continue to wait in silence and despair. & nbsp; Pakistan initially denied them permission to emigrate, fearing a massive influx could destabilize the country. The legal limbo they find themselves in predicts and even more despondent future.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan%E2%80%99s-forgotten-ghetto-residents--the-biharis-of-bangladesh/islam-and-human-rights/d/892