DHAKA, 5 June 2005 — Thousands of “stranded Pakistanis” took to the streets in the capital and marched to the prime minister’s office protesting against the snapping of power supply to their camps, sources said.
The protesters demanded immediate restoration of electricity in refugee camps across the nation, sources said.
The state-owned power board had cut off electricity on Friday to 66 camps, home to nearly 300,000 people known as “stranded Pakistanis”, citing soaring unpaid bills.
“Police intercepted a peaceful procession of around 2,500 people” half a kilometer from the office of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, police spokesman Mohammad Mohiuddin said.
Three leaders were allowed to submit a petition to the prime minister’s office. Protest organizer Shoukat Ali said they were promised steps would be taken to restore the electricity supply within 24 hours.
“If there’s no positive outcome by then, all the refugee camp residents will go on a hunger strike from early tomorrow (Sunday),” Ali said.
Ali, general secretary of the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC), added that “life is like hell for us” in the squalid camps. The power board stopped supplying electricity to the 66 camps after unpaid bills reached 445.6 million taka ($7.3 million) this month.
Most of the refugees came from the Indian state of Bihar after the partition of British India in 1947 to what was then East Pakistan but is now Bangladesh.
During the 1971 war between Pakistan and India that led to Bangladesh’s creation, they supported Pakistan. Afterward, Islamabad refused to allow them to emigrate to Pakistan.
The refugees, who speak Urdu, complain of massive discrimination in Bengali-speaking Bangladesh, saying it is hard for them to obtain jobs or get their children into schools.
So far just 10 have been granted voting rights since a May 2003 court ruling that stated they are Bangladeshi citizens.
