In December 1973 International Committee of Red Cross completed registration of 539,669 persons who want to return to Pakistan. In 2006 a report estimated between 240,000 and 300,000 Biharis live in 66 crowded camps in Dhaka and 13 other regions across Bangladesh.
India, Bangladesh and Pakistan signed an agreement in August 1973 under which all those who opted for Pakistan were to be repatriated. Following the New Delhi Tripartite agreement, first batch of 120,000 stranded Pakistanis was airlifted to Pakistan in 1974.
In 1988 the Government of Pakistan signed an agreement with Muslim World League, Mecca, Saudi Arabia establishing a Trust called Rabita Trust Fund to arrange repatriation and rehabilitation of all stranded Pakistanis from Bangladesh. The Trust was active until 1998.
After a wait of about two decades, in January 1993 when Pakistan took back the first batch of 300 Bihari from Bangladesh they were far from universally welcome. Native Sindhis, championed by the Pakistan People's Party, opposed their settlement in their province. The process of repatriation has been stopped since 1993.
A ray of hope had emerged when in 2002 during his visit to Bangladesh the President of
Pakistan Pervez Musharraf assured the representatives of the stranded Pakistanis to resolve this matter on priority basis. However, despite several assurances from different prime Ministers of Pakistan the matter is still unresolved.
On May 19, 2008, the Dhaka High Court granted right of Bangladesh citizenship to the second generation of Biharis who were born in the camps. The court held that any Urdu speaker (Bihari) born in Bangladesh, or whose father or grandfather was born in Bangladesh, and who was a permanent resident in 1971 or who has permanently resided in Bangladesh since 1971 is a citizen "by operation of law." Persons who affirm or acknowledge allegiance to a foreign state (such as Pakistan) may be disqualified, however. The court directed the Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) to enroll majority age Urdu speakers who wish to be registered and to issue them national identity cards (IDs) "without any further delay." Between 70 -80% of all Urdu-speakers registered and received their national identity documents. Among those that did not were those who retained a wish to repatriate to Pakistan.
Continued Misery in the Camps
Despite recent progress in voter and ID registration, 38 years of non-recognition has left around 200,000 Urdu-speaking people living in abject poverty and vulnerable to discrimination.
The camps where these stranded people are staying for almost four decades are the classic examples of subhuman living that has hardly any difference with animal life. Dingy and stinky atmosphere, merger of both water and sewerage lines, lack of latrines and clean water are constant threats to health.
Malnutrition of children in absence of proper food and medicine threatens their usual physical growth on one hand and absence of education turns them into dark generation on the other.
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