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Bihari Muslims stateless
in Bangladesh: UNHCR

Over 200,000 Bihari Muslims still live like refugees in 66 camps, with poor facilities, and their unclear status has created numerous problems for them, according to a book brought out by the UNHCR.

Pakistan's reluctance to accept Biharis, who have always regarded themselves as Pakistanis, has left them in the lurch as a Bangladeshi law dating back to 1972 denies citizenship to someone who ''owes, affirms or acknowledges expressly or by conduct, allegiance to a foreign state'', points out The State of World's Refugees: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action, which examines the major refugee crises of the past.

Although Pakistan had agreed to take back Biharis under the August 1973 repatriation accord, it was slow in giving clearance.

In 1974, a tripartite agreement was signed between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh for a second phase of repatriation, the book observed.

About 170,000 Biharis moved to Pakistan under these agreements but Pakistan interpreted the categories of 'non-Bengalis' set out in the agreement restrictively and did not take back all Biharis, it said.

Between 1977 and 1979 nearly 9,900 Biharis repatriated to Pakistan followed by another 4,800 in 1982. In 1993, 53 Bihari families were accepted by Pakistan before protests there stopped the process, the book added.

Since neither country is prepared to accept full responsibility for them, the Biharis are potentially stateless in Bangladesh, it concludes.

During the Partition of India in 1947, around one million Muslims from Bihar had moved to what became East Pakistan. In 1971, many joined Pakistani militia or collaborated with the Pakistani army and after the 1971 Indo-Pak war ended the Bihari community faced the wrath of Bengali nationalism. Many Biharis were killed and their property was seized.

UNI

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