'Thrashed in B'desh for being Hindu': Kolkata youth recalls horror

Amid reports of attacks on Hindus and other minorities in neighbouring Bangladesh, a youth from Kolkata claimed he was beaten up in Dhaka by unidentified persons after they learnt he was a Hindu from India.

Twenty-two-year-old Sayan Ghosh, who hails from Belgharia area on the northern fringes of the West Bengal capital, had gone to Bangladesh on November 23 and had put up at a friend's place, and the family treated him as their own son.

"However, as me and my friend went out for a stroll late in the evening on November 26, a group of four-five youths accosted me around 70 metres from my friend's residence. They asked me about my identity. As I told them I was from India and a Hindu, they started kicking and punching me and even attacked my friend who tried to save me," Ghosh told PTI.

"They even snatched my mobile phone and wallet at knife-point. No bystander came to our rescue. There was no policeman nearby. After the incident, we went to Shyampur police station but they refused to lodge any complaint. Instead, they repeatedly asked me why I visited Bangladesh. After I showed them my passport and visa, and after speaking to my friend and his family members, they were satisfied and asked me to get my wounds treated," he said.

Ghosh claimed that, however, that he was denied treatment at two private medical facilities and finally went to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.

"I received treatment there three hours after the incident. I had several stitches done on my forehead and head and even had injury in my mouth," Ghosh, still struck by horror, said.

Ghosh could finally lodge a complaint with Belgharia police station upon his return to Kolkata on November 30 as neither the immigration nor Bangladesh Border Guards at Darshana border outpost registered his complaint officially.

"I was too scared to visit the Indian High Commission in Dhaka fearing for the safety of me and my friend's family," he added.

After staying at his friend's house for three days after the incident, Ghosh was taken to the railway station by his friend in the early hours of November 29 and he took a train for Darshana.

From Darshana, he crossed over to Gede, on the Indian side, in the morning of November 29 and took a Sealdah-bound local train to reach Belgharia.

The young man, who wished that the issue not be politicised, said he intended to lodge a complaint with the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata.

"The youths were locals having some connections and probably that is why the police did not initiate any action against them and did not lodge my complaint," he said.

"I could not imagine such a nightmarish situation awaiting me in a neighbouring country where people speak the same language as us and share similar food habits," he said.

A Bangladesh Deputy High Commission official in Kolkata said the interim government was committed to ensuring the safety of every citizen, from all communities, as well as tourists and look into complaints once lodged for fair investigation.