After sleepless nights, some Hindus return to Bangladesh with trepidation
Times of India | 10 August 2024
AP photo PETRAPOLE: Tapan Kumar Das and his mother, who had arrived in Kolkata on Aug 4 for his medical treatment, had been spending sleepless nights, fearing their house back in Bangladesh might have been vandalised or looted since they left.
On Friday, as the mother and son were walking across the Petrapole border In Bengal, Tapan stopped at the checkpoint and asked BSF officers if he would be allowed to return to Bengal anytime soon in case of a medical emergency.
It was with both trepidation and hope in their hearts that the duo, and a number of other Bangladeshi nationals, many of them Hindus, returned home, hours after an interim govt was sworn-in on Thursday evening in the violence-ravaged neighbouring country. “I told a BSF officer at the border that I had a medical visa and wanted to be sure that I would be able to return to India in case of a necessity,” Das told TOI.
While many Bangladeshis believed it was now safe to return home, some said they were left with no other option as their visas were about to expire. Their news that police were back on the streets of Bangladesh and that most modes of transport had resumed services gave them the confidence to go back.