Don't want what we lost, only want rehabilitation: Bihari-Urdu speakers

The time has come to ensure the long overdue rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis, often referred to as Biharis, speakers at a discussion said today (20 January).

Addressing a roundtable, Council of Minorities Chief Executive Khalid Hussain said, "Since 1971, we have been called war criminals. The killings of our people have not been recorded nor researched. There is no mention. But we don't want what we lost. We only want rehabilitation."

The event, titled "Roundtable Discussion on Permanent Rehabilitation of Camp-based Bihari-Urdu Speaking Bangladeshi", was organised by the Council of Minorities, NAMATI, and Al-Falah Bangladesh at the Liberation War Museum in the capital's Agargaon this morning.

At the event, Khalid presented documents showing that 34,000 acres had been reserved for the community by the then relief ministry to rehabilitate the Muslim Bengali and non-Bengali refugees coming from India.

"Many Bangalees were also made Mohajir and given land. Right now, we think 2,000 acres is good enough," he said. 

He also mentioned that the documents had been sitting unresolved at the Prime Minister's Office.

The then prime minister had directed the disaster management and relief ministry in 2014, which in turn requested that each of the 24,212 families living in Dhaka be relocated to different parts of the country and allocated 3 decimals of land, he added.

Khalid stated that the last land distribution took place in 1996. Pointing out discrepancies, he also mentioned that the High Court, in a 2018 case, confirmed that land allocated for Mohajirs had been unlawfully occupied by Bengalis.

"We want to leave the camps, otherwise we will lose our heritage," he stressed.

Around 300,000 Bihari-Urdu-speaking people reside in 116 camps around Bangladesh.

Speaking at the event, Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam underscored the need to come out of a climate of fear and embrace the Bihari-Urdu speaking identity. 

"On the rehabilitation issue, I agree that injustice has been done to the community. Now, we need to go towards transitional justice, which is a long process," he said. 

He also said it was important that the injustice was not kept hidden, but brought to the surface. 

"It is still restricted to a few lines in some memoirs. It has never been in the mainstream," he said. 

Revisiting his own memories, Shafiqul said many Biharis were slaughtered at a bunker near the Motijheel Colony.

"I lived there... I remember being scared to go to the bathroom at night because of the screams I could hear in the late hours," he said.

Highlighting that there had been a "big rapture in race relationships" since 1971, he said because of the blanket of fear, not much could be said about it, but that time had passed. 

"You will get justice when others know about the injustice done to you," he said. 

"It was the youth who deposed Hasina. So don't be worried about your identity, especially if you're young," Shafiqul said.

He urged the community to "reclaim your language", mentioning that the month to celebrate language was around the corner. 

"For a cultural revival, an Urdu-medium school is needed. So you can think of launching one," he said. 

At the event, residents of different camps also spoke about various issues. 

"This isn't how humans are meant to live," Sayeda, a resident of Mirpur camp, said. 

"We can't even go to the bathroom in the middle of the night as it is a common one outside. There is no safety, no drainage facility. Even the NGOs aren't allowed to work properly," she said.

She also said the small rooms the families were forced to share resulted in an increased incidence of child marriages.

Nazina Akhther, another resident, said, "We are Bihari, but we cannot even speak our language. My nephew, who did well in his exams, was given lower marks in one particular subject because the teacher found out he was Bihari. Is being a Bihari a curse?"

Shabana Naved, a social activist and writer, said camps had been given a bad reputation. "So, the community needs to be able to get out of the ghetto," she said. 

Coordination and partnerships analyst at UN Women Bangladesh Syeda Samara Mortada, writer Parsa Sanjana Sajid, and Shamsul Huda, executive director of the Association for Land Reform and Development, among others, spoke at the event.