AGARTALA: Twelve-year-old Papia could not recognize her father Sanjib Das (48) when he returned home. After all, she was only a toddler when Sanjib went to Feni district in Bangladesh to attend a wedding.
It was supposed to be a short trip. But it took Sanjib 10 long years to return home, accompanied by BSF jawans and pushed into Indian territory through the Mohurighat border in South Tripura on Wednesday.
Papia is the only daughter of Sanjib and Bina, residents of Dolbari village in Sabroom. Upon seeing her husband after 10 years, who is by now ailing and weak, Bina burst into tears. As her parents wept, however, Papia was silent.
"I have seen my father's picture many times in the family album. But I could not recognize this man, who they introduced to me as my father. I couldn't believe it. But now I understand. My father is ill," Papia told mediapersons.
Her father had gone to Bangladesh along with his friends Manik Banik and Dipak Chandra Das on May 18, 2004. One mistake caused them to lose 10 years of their lives. They weren't carrying their passports.
On the very night they entered the foreign country, Sanjib said, Bangadeshi police arrested all three of them for illegally entering Bangladesh. After a week, they were sent to Feni jail and were to be released after thee months. Obviously, that didn't happen.
Sanjib blamed the external affairs ministry and the Indian High Commission in Dhaka for their sufferings in the Bangladesh jail. He alleged that they had not been given proper food and even deprived of medication during their stay in jail.
"From jail, we communicated with the Indian High Commission in Dhaka. Our family in Tripura made several communications with the external affairs ministry, but unfortunately our government did not take up the issue properly with Bangladesh," Sanjib said.
He said more than 500 innocent Indian villagers have been suffering ill treatment in Bangladesh jails over the years even after their jail terms had been served due to inaction on the part of the Indian authorities.
Sanjib recalled how any tension on the Indo-Bangladesh border would have its repercussions in jail. He alleged that the Bangladeshi jail officials would treat the Indian inmates badly, abuse and ill-treat them openly and even deny them their meals.
On Wednesday, however, Sanjib returned home along with his two friends.
Along with these three, 52-year-old Uttam Basak of Amtali village in Sabroom was also pushed back by the Border Guards Bangladesh through the Mohurighat check post.
Uttam too was arrested under the Passport Act for crossing the riverine border through River Feni on April 25, 2007.
Uttam recalled that he was swimming in the river on the summer afternoon when suddenly, three or four persons surrounded him.
"I was taken to a police station and the next day, when I was produced before a local court, I found out that I had crossed the border illegally while swimming. I was sent to jail for six months," Uttam said.
Six months turned into six years for Uttam.
In a related development, Mobile Task Force personnel of Tripura police have detained at least seven Bangladeshi nationals during three separate raids in Boxnagar on the western border of the state on Wednesday. All of them were sent to jail by a local court for illegally entering Indian territory.
~toi
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