Stranded Pakistanis want either rehabilitation or repatriation

They have been living inhumane lives in different camps with lack of drinking water, electricity, sewerage facilities and congested and shabby housing facilities since long, they said at a press conference at the National Press Club in the city yesterday.

The Pakistanis, who failed to return to their homeland before or during the Liberation War in 1971, have been living in the 66 camps across the country. According to the 1992 census, their number is 2.38 lakh.

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Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC) leaders claimed that even a small amount of relief (3 kilograms of rice), which the government had been giving to each Bihari, has been stopped for the last 17 months.

"We do not want to be the victims of the tangles of various government agencies," he said, adding that they have minimum capacities to earn and live.

They also alleged that some vested quarters often threaten them of eviction from the camps and various government agencies abolished their living rooms and other structures without any government order.

The leaders at the conference said the Bangladesh and Pakistani governments assured of either rehabilitation or repatriation, but nothing has happened so far.

"We urge the prime minister of Bangladesh to look into our problems solve immediately."