Bangla migrants disappear without trace in India

hili: emanul haq is still running from the law, nearly a month after he entered india with members of his family at the dead of night - escaping from torture and possible death at the hands of a mob of bangladesh nationalist party supporters. a resident of rajshahi, where he runs a construction company, supplying stone chips to the railways, haq was attacked a few days after the bnp came to power in bangladesh.an awami league supporter, his house was set on fire and he and his wife and two daughters given 24 hours to leave. all of us are targets, but yes _ hindus are being attacked more as there is a general anti-india and therefore anti-hindu feeling among bnp supporters who feel sk hasina sold bangladesh's interests to india, haq said, sitting in a relative's house in this border village, separated by railway tracks and by partition. one half of hili is in india and the other half is in bangladesh, like many places along the dinajpur border. it is rather easy to cross over into india, with no border fencing for 30 kilometres on either side of hili checkpost. and many like haq - though few muslims and more hindus - have crossed over to india in the last two weeks. usually, three or four people come in through the checkposts each day - of course with valid travel documents. the number has shot up significantly in recent days, admitted customs official s.k.pan - sitting next to a grim-faced bsf jawan as they checked and stamped two more passports. an elderly couple - amar and bidisha chowdhury - had just entered india. but, pan admitted that many others have crossed into india recently - as they always do - illegally through the porous border. in dakshinpara and haripukur, some houses are situated on the border itself. the back door opens into india and bangladesh is 10 feet away from the front door. and for miles on either side of these houses, there is no border fencing. what can a few bsf jawans do to stop bangladeshis from slipping into india through these areas, he asks. but ask pan and other bsf jawans on the whereabouts of such illegal immigrants, and they feign ignorance, as do local villagers of hili, dakshinpara, gajaldanga and chandrabhaga. no one seems to know where these refugees have headed - or more likely - are not willing to give away their whereabouts. one finally finds some of them in baruitola _ a few kilometres away from the hili border. here debesh gupta (name changed) sits with his family ina small two-room house owned by a distant relative. i had to run away after a gang of 25 to 30 men threatened to take away my 15 and 18 year old daughters paromita and sibani - unless we paid rs 20,000. they finally settled for rs 10,000, but i had to leave all my belongings behind, gupta said, the anger in his voice reminiscent of those who had fled in a similar fashion some 53 years ago. and yet, even gupta points out the basic difference. back in 1947-48, only hindus were being persecuted. this time it is not a communal hindu - muslim war but one being fought between upbeat bnp men and people who supported the awami league. one of my muslim neighbour was stabbed and another's daughter was still missing when we fled. we are fleeing into india. i am sure the persecuted muslims are fleeing somewhere.