Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh ( ur, , , bn, উদ্বাস্তু পাকিস্তানি, udbāstu pākistāni) are Urdu-speaking Muslim migrants with homelands in present-day

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

(then part of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

) who settled in

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

(now

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

) following the

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

in 1947. This identification can encompass several groups of people. The first among them are

Bihari Muslims Bihari Muslims are adherents of Islam who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Biharis. They are geographically native to the region comprising the Bihar state of India, although there are significantly large communities o ...

. Although most of this population belonged to the

Bihar Province Bihar Province was a province of British India, created in 1936 by the partition of the Bihar and Orissa Province. History In 1756, Bihar was part of Bengal. On 14 October 1803, Orissa was occupied by the British Raj. On 22 March 1912, both Biha ...

of British India, there are many from other Indian states such as U.P. (United Provinces or later

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

). There are still others who had settled in what is now known as Bangladesh in the late 19th century. The second term of reference for this group coined by themselves after the creation of Bangladesh is "Stranded Pakistanis". In Urdu media in Pakistan and elsewhere this was translated as "Mehsooreen" or the "Besieged". Henceforth any of the above terms may be used to identify this group depending on the context and history. Biharis were stateless until 2008 when a judgment by the

Dhaka High Court The High Court Division, Supreme Court of Bangladesh ( bn, হাইকোর্ট ডিভিশন) popularly known as the 'High Court' is one of the two divisions of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, the other division being the Appellate D ...

gave them right to Bangladeshi citizenship. The judgment does not cover refugees who were adults at the time of

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Benga ...

. In March 2015, the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( ur, , ''Wazarat-e-Kharja'', abbreviated as MoFA) is a ministry of the Government of Pakistan tasked in managing Pakistan's diplomatic and consular relations as well as its foreign policy. The MOFA is also res ...

said that more than 170,000 Biharis had been repatriated to Pakistan and the remaining 'stranded Pakistanis' are not its responsibility but rather the responsibility of Bangladesh.

Partition

In pre-independence

, there was an

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

. In 1947, at the time of

, many Bihari Muslims, many of whom were fleeing the violence that took place during partition, fled to the newly independent

, while others went to

West Pakistan West Pakistan ( ur, , translit=Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān, ; bn, পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান, translit=Pôścim Pakistan) was one of the two Provincial exclaves created during the One Unit Scheme in 1955 in Pakistan. It was d ...

where they are commonly known as Muhajirs. They held a disproportionate number of positions in the new country because Urdu was made the national language of the new state and as such was, for many Biharis, their mother tongue.

Independence of Bangladesh

In 1971, when the

broke out between

and

, the Biharis sided with West Pakistan, opposed the Bengali demand of making Bengali an official language, and chose to maintain Urdu as the state language as for many Bihari, it was their mother tongue. With covert and later overt Indian support, East Pakistan became the independent state of

. During the war, there were many attacks on the Bihari community as they were seen as symbols of West Pakistani domination. These attacks included rape, murder and looting.

Refugee crisis

Due to their initial pro-Pakistan stance, the Biharis were consistent in their wish to be repatriated to Pakistan. Initially, 83,000 Biharis (58,000 former civil servants and military personnel), members of divided families and 25,000 hardship cases were evacuated to Pakistan. The remaining Biharis were now left behind as the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

and Pakistani civilians evacuated, and they found themselves unwelcome in both countries. The Pakistani government, at the time, was "struggling to accommodate thousands of Afghan refugees". Additionally, the Pakistani government believed that since Bangladesh was still the successor state of East Pakistan, it had to fulfil its duty in absorbing these refugees just as (West) Pakistan did with the many millions of refugees (incidentally, including some

Bengalis Bengalis (singular Bengali bn, বাঙ্গালী/বাঙালি ), also rendered as Bangalee or the Bengali people, are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the ...

) who fled to West Pakistan. Some groups in Pakistan have urged the Pakistan government to accept the Biharis. In an agreement in 1974 Pakistan accepted 170,000 Bihari refugees; however, the repatriation process subsequently stalled. Post-independence Bangladesh scorned the Biharis for supporting the Pakistan Army. With neither country offering citizenship, the Biharis were stateless. Organisations like

Refugees International Refugees International (RI) is an independent humanitarian organization that advocates for better support for displaced people (including refugees and internally displaced people) and stateless people. It does not accept any United Nations or gove ...

urged the governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh to "grant citizenship to the hundreds of thousands of people who remain without effective nationality". In 2006 a report estimated between 240,000 and 300,000 Biharis lived in 66 crowded camps in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

and 13 other regions across Bangladesh. In 2003, a case came before a high court in which ten Biharis were awarded citizenship according to the court's interpretation of the constitution. Subsequently, however, little progress was made in expanding that ruling to others. Many Pakistanis and international observers believe the plight of the Biharis has been politicized with political parties giving the refugees false hopes and impracticable expectations. In recent years, several court rulings in Bangladesh have awarded citizenship to Biharis living in Bengali refugee camps, as the majority of these refugees were born there. International observers believe that Bangladesh, as the successor state needs to fulfil its international obligations and grant citizenship to this ''officially stateless'' ethnic group or arrange for the peaceful repatriation to their native state of Bihar, over the border in India from where they originally hail from. In a visit to Bangladesh in 2002 Pakistani president

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of the ...

said while he had every sympathy for the plight of thousands of people in Bangladesh known as 'stranded Pakistanis', he could not allow them to emigrate to Pakistan as Pakistan was in no position to absorb such a large number of refugees. He encouraged his Bengali counterpart not to politicize the issue and accept the refugees as citizens being the successor state of East Pakistan. Pakistani government officials have threatened to deport the more than 1.5 million illegal Bengali refugees living in its country if the issue is not resolved acceptably.

Bangladeshi citizenship

In May 2003 a High Court ruling in Bangladesh allowed ten Biharis to obtain citizenship and voting rights; the ruling also exposed a generation gap amongst Biharis, with younger Biharis tending to be "elated" with the ruling but with many older people "despair ngat the enthusiasm" of the younger generation. Many Biharis now seek greater civil rights and citizenship in Bangladesh.

In popular culture

* ''Of Martyrs and Marigolds'', a novel by Aquila Ismail, highlights the atrocities committed by Bengali nationalists against

Biharis The Biharis () is a demonym given to the inhabitants of the Indian state of Bihar. Bihari people can be separated into three main Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic groups, Bhojpuris, Maithils and Magadhis. They are also further divided into a vari ...

during the Bangladesh Liberation War. * In 2007, prominent Bangladeshi filmmaker

Tanvir Mokammel Tanvir Mokammel (born 8 March 1955) is a Bangladeshi filmmaker and writer. He is the recipient of Ekushey Padak in 2017. He won Bangladesh National Film Awards total ten times for the films ''Nodir Naam Modhumoti'' (1995), '' Chitra Nodir Pare'' ( ...

made a documentary film titled '' The Promised Land''. The film highlights the current stateless status of Biharis and their despair of not being able to settle in Pakistan., which they see as a betrayal of Pak government. *

Salman Rushdie's Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and W ...

acclaimed fiction novel Midnight Children details the atrocities of the Bangladesh Liberation War and Genocide, specifically in the beginning of Book 3; his protagonist

Saleem Sinai Saleem Sinai is the protagonist of the Booker Prize-winning novel ''Midnight's Children'' by Salman Rushdie. His life is closely intertwined with the events that take place in his homeland of pre- and post-colonial India, and newly created Pakist ...

takes a farcical part in Operation Searchlight as a human bloodhound.

References

External links

Stateless people In Bangladesh

The Forgotten People: Bihari Refugees of Bangladesh, UCANews

{{Bangladesh–Pakistan relations Bangladesh Liberation War Bangladesh–Pakistan relations Ethnic groups in Bangladesh Immigration to Pakistan Muhajir communities Muhajir history Pakistani diaspora in Asia Pakistani social culture Refugees in Bangladesh Social groups of Pakistan Statelessness Urdu-speaking Bangladeshi Urdu-speaking people by occupation Urdu-speaking countries and territories