Bangladesh got its Independence from Pakistan in 1971…Reasons for this seperation,well there are many…& That’s not the scope of this thread…Currently Bangladesh is 98% Bengali…with 2% Tribals(Rangmati/Chittagong Hill Tract tribes) & Urdu Speaking Bihari Pakistanis(About 2,50,000 of them,mainly living in the Slums of Dhaka)…
Bihari who still claim themselves as Pakistanis,after 34 years of creation of Bangladesh,are living in worst human conditions that anyone can imagine off,living in the slums of an already impoverished country…It is now very difficult to assess the patriotism of these Biharis for Pakistan,but they still claim themselves as Pakistani refugees in Bangladesh,that first supported Pakistan’s military presence in East Pakistan,also were against the creation of Bangladesh & once when Bangladesh was created got stranded in Bangladesh…They also became traitors in the eyes of ordinary Bangladeshis by supporting Pakistani Military in 1971..They are stuck up in a wet sand,embarrased,country less & wealth less…
Well What’s their future now…34 years have passed now…That’s almost a generation too long…Is it still feasible to support their re-settlement in Pakistan???
If that’s not possible…Atleast Pakistani government should take courage and accept them as their own…Take it’s resposibilty & start its efforts to make the lives of these people better in Bangladesh where they are…East Pakistan is long gone,but the difficulties for these people has not ended…What holds for them in the future only time would tell…they may be able to claim their rights in Pakistan(Just like when Crimean Tartars were thrown out of Crimean SSR by Stalin in 1930’s for false claim of their traitorship to Uzbekistan,but they returned in 1990’s,almost after 70 years)…So anything is possible.
Urdu-speaking Pakistani Muslims follow a van carrying the body of their leader Nasim Khan in Dhaka August 29, 2005. Khan, leader of the community known as Stranded Pakistanis, died on Sunday at the age of 85. Since the former East Pakistan became independent Bangladesh in December 1971 following a nine-month war, some 250,000 Urdu-speaking Pakistani Muslims have lived in 66 squalid camps in Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh, waiting to return to their homeland Pakistan.
(Not able to upload the pic…Here is the link:
http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/rids/20050829/i/r3175744363.jpg?x=380&y=212&sig=NOvpkzksrIEjZKTBzSEY.w-- )
