Fleet of cabs brings home students from riot-hit Bangladesh

GUWAHATI: A fleet of taxis, a security escort, and a harrowing six-hour journey brought Asif Hussain and about 80 other Indian students back home Friday from Bangladesh, where violence has erupted between protesters and security forces over the quota system for govt jobs. Over 100 people have been killed in the clashes with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets to scatter protesters who also torched vehicles and establishments.

For Hussain, who studies at a private medical college in Bangladesh's Manikganj district, about 50km from Dhaka, being cut off from his family in India was especially "stressful". He added, "Our college was not affected by the violence but we heard there was trouble in the town (about 15 minutes away)."

As news came in of student deaths in Dhaka, Hussain and about 80 others from his college hired private taxis to travel to the border Bangladesh shares with West Bengal, about 170km away.

Indian high commission in Bangladesh also provided the students with a security escort after they requested for it, Hussain said.

Leaving their college at 2.30am, the group reached the border six hours later but crossed it only in the afternoon after clearing immigration. For Hussain, the journey will continue for another day as he travels to his hometown, Dhubri, in Assam. "It has been very scary... I have (still) not been able to speak to many of my friends in Dhaka," he said.

Meghalaya, which too shares a border with Bangladesh, is also helping evacuate people, with officials saying over 350 students from India, Nepal and Bhutan have entered through this route so far.