‘Shelter us in India or kill us’: Refugees at Indo-Bangla border tell BSF

Bangladesh Protest: “Either shelter us in India or kill us right here. If we go back, they will also kill us”, Bangladeshi refugees in the Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal have pleaded with the Border Security Forces (BSF). As over 500 refugees wait on no man’s land seeking shelter in India amid Bangladesh protests, ghosts of partition past rekindle fear of more significant implications of the turmoil in South Asian nations.
Sheikh Hasina resigned as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and fled Dhaka due to a grave crisis resulting from a student-led rebellion. The student protest started with the demand to reform job quotas for public sector companies in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh protesters revelled in joy when Hasina resigned. However, reports of targeted violence against minorities, including Hindus and Awami League members, have now caused concern.
Further, implications of Bangladesh’s protests and turmoil have resulted in the dramatic escalation of a refugee crisis in borderlands.
A Bangla newspaper, Uttarbanga Sambad, reported that hundreds of refugees have turned up on the no-man’s land near the Uttar Dinajpur border with Bangladesh and West Bengal. The report further added that refugees from strife-torn Bangladesh swam across the Nagar River to reach the no-man’s land, seeking shelter in India.
BSF has been vigilant in refusing shelter and asking them to return.
The Uttarbanga Sambad reports that over 500 refugees, including older people and children stand with at the no-man’s lands with one plea- “Shelter from India”. As India navigates the diplomatic throes of giving asylum to former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, the BSF has been aggressively turning the refugees away.
The report added, that on Monday night, Bangladesh protesters in the Baliadangi Upazila raided the Radhakrishna market and burnt down shops.
As Bangladesh pins its hopes on one of the nation’s most acclaimed intellectuals – Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus – to bring stability to a country scarred by coups and political upheaval, the deaths resulting from the turmoil refuse to cease.
Muhammad Yunus, whose work alleviating poverty won him a Nobel Peace Prize, was named the head of a new interim government on Tuesday.