A day in heat, a night in uncertainty

The day brought relentless heat. Even beneath the shade of trees, sweat streamed down faces without pause. Caught between push-ins and pushbacks, 12 people, including women and children, spent a day of uncertainty and misery yesterday at the zero line along the India-Bangladesh border in Pragpur of Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia.

From time to time, Bangladeshis crossed a makeshift bridge over the Mathabhanga River, carrying drinking water to them -- perhaps the only thing that made enduring the day possible.

As evening fell, the uncertainty only deepened. A scheduled flag meeting between the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and India’s Border Security Force (BSF) did not take place, leaving the group to face another night of anxiety at the border after a day spent under the scorching sun.

At around 7:30pm, Lt Col Rashed Kamal Rony, commanding officer of Kushtia Battalion (47 BGB), told The Daily Star that the flag meeting would be held today. Until then, the group would have to remain at the zero line.

The 12 people include four women, four children and four men. One of the children is between one and one-and-a-half years old.

Earlier, in the early hours of yesterday, the BSF pushed the group into Bangladesh through the Pragpur border. They reached Hasib Market, located inside Bangladeshi territory.

After spotting them, local residents informed the BGB. Later, through the efforts of the BGB and locals, the group was sent back to the zero line along the border.

“I came to the border after hearing commotion when I woke up,” Mobarak Hossain, a resident of the border area, told The Daily Star. “I saw that they had been taken across the Mathabhanga River near the border and brought to the local Hasib Market. Later, we and the BGB together sent them back across the Bangladesh border.”

During a visit to the area around 1:30pm, this correspondent found the four men, four women and four children from India taking shelter in a jute field at the zero line near pillar No. 48, enduring the blazing sun.

Meanwhile, local residents, BGB personnel and a large number of journalists gathered along the bank of the Mathabhanga River.

On the opposite side, the BSF was reportedly looking for an opportunity to push them into Bangladesh again.