"I am really proud of the Bihar Moslems who sacrificed so much. Their
sacrifices will not go in vain. They have brought the Pakistan goal
nearer and have shown readiness to make any sacrifice for its
attainment."

- Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.
Associated Press. (1947, February 24). Moslem Officials Press Demand
for Pakistan Statehood. Pottstown Mercury.

=====

There is a cliche that says: "seeing is believing". After my visits
to the Stranded Pakistanis/Stateless People in Bangladesh/Biharis/Geneva camps, I would say that "seeing is
disbelieving".

37 years and counting, between 250,000 to 300,000 Pakistanis have
been completely ditched by their country, in an act of treason for
the ages; treason that may be unrivaled by any other in the 20th
century.

It's difficult to quantify oppression and suffering; nevertheless, I
have been to territories under military occupation and a fair amount
of areas of poverty and slums, but I don't recall ever being in a
place that is infested with as much injustice and sadness. I cannot
do justice to what I saw and experienced, but I will try to express
some of my thoughts:

- As I walked through the various camps, seeing the conditions of the
people filled my heart with pity and rage. I kept cursing Pakistan -
how ironic that the descendents of those who were at the forefront of
the movement and making enormous sacrifices were being mistreated
like this. To this day, whenever I think about them, I absolutely
burn up inside, remembering the faces of the people: the old, who
have somehow managed to live through this misery, and the innocent
young, whose future remains murky and dismal...

- The camps generally are a stinking mess of matter, material and
sewage, with many humans living in between. Some are relatively
better off than others; the ones in Dhaka are generally a bit better
than those outside. Yet even in the camp at Mohammedpur, which is in
Dhaka and is the biggest one - and termed the "Paris" of all the
camps by their leader, Jabbar sahab - the conditions are simply
revolting (as a side note: the main street in Mohammedpur, once named
after the accursed Pakistani dictator Ayub Khan, has now (thankfully
and expectedly) been renamed to Asad Avenue)...

- To give an additional idea as to how bad life in the camps are, local social workers informed me that the people in the worst conditions at the Rohingya camps (refugees from Burma) - as bad as they are - are still in a better condition than those who are in the best conditions in the Bihari camps...

- These stranded people ("Biharis" - as they're commonly referred as)
are hard-working people; I was impressed by those living in camps in
the Dhaka region, at how hard they are willing to work - for those
fortunate enough to find work, or to learn a trade (handicrafts,
artifacts, handlooms, etc.). The vast majority face discrimination
and earn less than what regular Bangladeshis earn. Nonetheless, in
the Mohammedpur camp, sometimes Bengali beggars from outside of the
camps come to ask for money, and are given whatever little is there.
These "Biharis" may be dirt poor, but they are undoubtedly
industrious people of integrity and honour; truly, a country like
Pakistan doesn't deserve them...

- It really broke my heart to see the common sight of old people
walking around crippled, with no way to resolve their injuries; small
children of young ages (as young as 3 years old) working strenuously
all day, trying to earn a very little amount of money; women trying
to bathe while no one is looking; etc.

- In camps outside of the city, like at Adamjee Nagar and Chittagong,
the conditions were unimaginable. I really couldn't believe how
people were living. Barely-clad children were openly urinating and
defecating around. There was a general overwhelming stench that I
was struggling to cope with, while seeing people languishing in
disgusting conditions. My mind was racing quickly and I was trying
to register it all...but I couldn't. As I said before, seeing is
disbelieving...

- I was shown pictures of various Pakistani leaders, including
Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz (whose wife herself was among those who
were left behind in East Pakistan), who have visited Bangladesh, over
the years, and made tall promises of helping. After all these years,
the people remain stranded, with nothing but tons of broken promises
(note: Saudi Arabia had donated millions of dollars in 1971 to help
repatriate these Pakistanis; the money remains in a joint account
held in escrow between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, unused)...

- I was informed that for Pakistan Independence Day, not only are the
camp leaders not invited by the Pakistani embassy for celebrations,
but they are purposely ignored. The camp leaders even sent flowers
to the embassy for the past Independence Day event, but they were
promptly rejected and returned. In the mean time, the Pakistan
embassy even invites Mukhti Bahini members (Bengali militia that led
the armed rebellion against the Pakistani government and civilians)
to join Independence Day festivities...

- At the Mohammedpur camp, I was shown a place in an alley where an
old woman recently died. She had lost her father in the Partition of
India in 1947 (sacrifice for Pakistan), then lost her husband and
sons in the state-sponsored genocide in 1971 following the creation
of Bangladesh (sacrifice for Pakistan), and remained in the camp for
37 years, finally dying alone, on the street. She did not even
possess enough clothes to cover herself - somehow people pooled
scraps of clothes for her burial shroud. She died with absolutely
nothing, but the hope that the country she gave up everything for
would simply acknowledge her existence. May Allah(swt) grant her
jannat...

- I met countless people who had horrendous stories of family members
that were mercilessly raped and murdered in the most appalling ways.
Some witnessed their mothers and daughters raped in front of their
eyes, before being killed. Others saw their children being slowly
murdered, with various torture methods: beaten with clubs, burned
alive, having each limb cut and vinegar applied so as to cause pain,
etc. Others were caused permanent injures: eyes poked out, acid in
ears, etc.

- Dhaka police regularly comes to the camps and harrass inhabitants.
The government has been trying, for many years, to try to vacate some
areas. They use intimidation tactics, arrest young men, forcefully
take bribes from these poor people, in trying to make them move...

- I saw a handful of schools being set up by individual efforts of
some dedicated social workers. Some schools (like the one at the
Mirpur camp) that were finally made after a tremendous amount of
effort, were forcefully taken over by Bengalis living outside of the
camps. Nevertheless, it was nice to see there are some poor Bengali
kids that also study at mainly non-Bengali schools in the camps, as
they refuse to turn anyone in need away, regardless of his/her ethnic
background...

I could go on but I'll stop right here. The existence of
these "stateless" people is a major blot in Pakistani history, one
that may be unforgivable. Those who have left these people to rot -
and continue to do so - will assuredly have to pay for each and every
one of these tormented souls.

In the mean time, these living, breathing humans are living proof
that Pakistan was an enormous mistake/failed state. 300,000 pieces
of evidence can be thrown in any court with the question: would ANY
country with even a shred of integrity mistreat their MOST PATRIOTIC
and LOYAL citizens like this? These are people who are patriotic
heroes, who proved their loyalty by making ultimate sacrifices for
Pakistan, the country AND the ideology, time and time again. Surely,
to mistreat them as such proves that such a country/society has gone
beyond the depths of being pathetic.

=====

Amidst this haze of bleakness, there are efforts being made to help
these people. The RS Foundation, along with its on-site partners,
are initiating and supporting projects to help these people out and
to ameliorate their conditions in a practical way, by concentrating
on education and health. PLEASE VISIT www.rsfoundation.ca (http://www.rsfoundation.ca/) TO FIND
OUT MORE INFORMATION.