Punished for love of Pakistan

2026-02-08 - 22:26

Direct flights from Bangladesh to Pakistan have started after many years and there has been jubilation and celebrations in both countries. After the fall of Hasina Wajid regime in Dhaka Pakistan and Bangladesh are getting closer yet in this renewed feeling of friendship nobody seems to remember the tragic fate of over three million stranded Pakistani citizens called Biharis in Bangladesh. These poor former Pakistani citizens are being punished for their unconditional love of Pakistan for daring to support the Pakistan army in 1971. These poor people have been languishing in shanty towns in appalling conditions, denied citizenship and living like stateless people since the last fifty four years or so and their plight goes unnoticed by the Pakistan Govt., the United Nations and the world community. The aftermath of the 1971 war was a chaotic period for the stranded Pakistanis or Biharis in Bangladesh. Thousands of them were gunned down or slaughtered by jubilant or victorious cadres of the Mukti Bahini and the survivors were then crammed into concentration camps on the pattern of Nazi Concentration camps in Europe. They became stateless people overnight because they were denied basic rights of citizenship by newly formed Govt. of Bangladesh in Dhaka and Pakistan too refused to recognize that these people were legally the citizens of Pakistan. In 1973 a tripartite agreement was signed between Pakistan, India and Bangladesh that resulted in the repatriation of prisoners of war and stranded people of both countries and as a result about 121,000 Bengalis were repatriated to Bangladesh and 108000 non Bengalis were airlifted from Bangladesh and brought to Pakistan and most of these were people from the areas of West Pakistan and over three million Biharis were left behind to languish in camps as stateless people suffering from denial of basic human rights and rights of citizenship. the term ‘Biharis’ refers to the approximately 300,000 non-Bengali citizens of the former East Pakistan who remain stranded in camps in Bangladesh (many others have assimilated into the Bengali population). The Bihari minority – Urdu-speaking Muslims, generally Sunni, who migrated from Bihar and West Bengal during India’s Partition – have long been discriminated against for their perceived alliance with Pakistan during the independence war.Today 55 years after the creation of Bangladesh these unfortunate people have settled in India and Pakistan and a tiny minority has managed to migrate to foreign lands in Europe and the middle East but neither Pakistan nor Bangladesh have agreed to grant citizenship. to the Biharis or the legally stranded Pakistanis suffering immense hardships in Bangladesh even today. It was in 2008 that a Supreme Court ruling recognized their right to Bangladesh citizenship when most of these people were still stateless. During the British colonial times, segments of the Urdu speaking communities moved and settled in Bihar. After the Partition in 1947 there was a mass movement of peoples between India and Pakistan. Although transfers of population took place largely across the Punjab, an exchange of population of 1.3 million people took place between East and West Bengal. The Partition of India also forced one million Muslims from Bihar into migration into East Bengal. Members of these communities came to be known collectively as Biharis in East Pakistan, although not all came from the north Indian state of Bihar. In the local jargon in East Pakistan all non-Bengalis were classified as Bihari. Most of the Biharis were skilled middle class people who after migration took up employment in large numbers in the East Pakistan Railways and many became small traders, clerks and civil servants many were appointed to take over the jobs left by the migrating Hindus in industry and trade. The Urdu-speaking Biharis became increasingly unpopular and were seen by Bengalis as symbols of West Pakistani domination, which created a climate of hostility against Biharis. In the December 1970 elections most Biharis supported the pro-Pakistan Muslim League rather than the Awami League, which was largely a Bengali nationalist movement. When the independent state of Bangladesh was formed in December 1971 several thousand Biharis were arrested as alleged collaborators, and there were many cases of retaliation against Biharis. During the decade of the 80s there were some initiativesto resettle the Biharis in Pakistan but nothing came of it in July 1988 the Zia Govt. signed an agreement with the World Muslim League that provided an initiative for the settlement of the Biharis but Zia’s death in August 1988 left the matter in LimboThe outcome of Pakistan’s national elections in 1988 provided the Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM), which has been the most enthusiastic supporter of Bihari settlement in Pakistan, with an opportunity to extract concessions from the two main contenders for the government. A deal was struck with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in which the PPP promised that ‘all Pakistanis living abroad by choice or by compulsion had the same rights as citizens of Pakistan’. The terms of the agreement were ambiguous, and its realization seemed impossible in so far as the Biharis were concerned. The first air flight of Biharis from Bangladesh to Pakistan was cancelled in January 1989 after protests by the Sindhi National Alliance and Punjabi-Pakhtun Itehad. Today the Biharis are one of the most marginalized and victimized communities of Bangladesh and they continue to live in ramshackle run down shanty towns that are supposed to be relief camps the largest of which is the Geneva Camp housing over 750000 people in which hardly 5% have received formal education. There have been many incidents of violence and organized victimization against the Bihari community On 14 June 2014, for instance, a Bengali mob attacked a Bihari settlement on the outskirts of Dhaka after an altercation broke out between communities, resulting in 10 deaths and widespread damage from arson. A local leader alleged that the attack was motivated by the desire of local politicians to evict the community. The poor unfortunate Bihari people are being punished for the crime of loving Pakistan and for their support of Pakistan army during the 1971 war and insurgency in East Pakistan. Legally they are citizens of Pakistan yet Pakistan state does not recognize their legitimate status as citizens and they continue to suffer and live like stateless people in Bangladesh. —The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad.