While Pakistan has been consistently ignoring the plight of over half-a-million Stranded Pakistanis for the past 53 years, since 2022, under a special program codenamed “Take Back Bangladesh”, country’s infamous spy agency has started recruiting youths – male and female, giving them training at various location at Khyber Pashtun and sending them back to Bangladesh with specific assignment of executing terrorist and subversive activities in Bangladesh and India.
It may be mentioned here that, following independence of Bangladesh, these Pakistanis who are known as “Biharis” refused to become citizens of the country and opted for returning to their own country Pakistan. This segment of Stranded Pakistanis considers Bengalis as Hindus and their “class enemies”. For decades, while Pakistan showed no sign of taking their citizen returned from Bangladesh, Stranded Pakistanis have been living across 66 camps in 13 districts in the country.
While the international community, including organizations like the OIC, once provided support, efforts have stagnated, leaving over 500,000 Stranded Pakistanis into dire uncertainty. Other Arab organizations also stopped helping this huge size of populace.
The Biharis, predominantly Urdu-speaking migrants from Bihar, West Bengal, and other regions of India, moved to East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) following the partition of 1947. They identified themselves with the Pakistani state, their cultural affinity aligning with West Pakistan. During the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, this alignment proved catastrophic. Seen as collaborators of the Pakistani military during the atrocities of “Operation Searchlight” and other conflicts, many Biharis became embroiled in violence against Bengalis. Their allegiance to Pakistan alienated them from the emerging independent state of Bangladesh.
Following the war, Biharis faced severe retribution and ostracization.........