In historic land swap at midnight, 14,000 Bangladeshis become Indians

 

Masaldanga/Cooch Behar, 01 Aug 2015: Jubilant crowds celebrated after India and Bangladesh, at one minute past midnight on Saturday, swapped tiny islands of land, ending one of the world’s most intractable border disputes that has kept thousands of people in stateless limbo for the past 68 years.

 

With this land swap, India gained access to 55 Bangladeshi enclaves that house 14,000 residents.

 

Officials of the two nations will, in formal ceremonies on Saturday morning, hoist their respective national flags in 162 enclaves - 111 in Bangladesh and 51 in India - to assume sovereignty over the territories following a historic border agreement in June.

 

The land-swap means some 50,000 people who have been living in the enclaves will now access citizenship benefits such as schools, power and healthcare that they have lacked since 1947.

 

"This is the biggest celebration of my life. I can’t describe how I feel today," said Parul Khatun, 35, a resident of the Indian enclave of Kot Bajni.

 

Many lit 68 candles to mark the end of "68 years of endless pain and indignity".

 

Maidul Islam, 18, said the handover meant "we’re now human beings with full human rights."

 

The parcels of land survived Partition of the subcontinent in 1947 after British rule and Bangladesh’s 1971 War of Independence with Pakistan.

 

Bangladesh endorsed a deal with India in 1974 in a bid to dissolve the pockets, but India signed the final agreement in June when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Dhaka.

 

Officials of both nations conducted surveys in July, asking residents to choose a country.

 

The overwhelming majority of people living in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh opted for Bangladeshi citizenship.

 

But nearly 1,000 people on the Bangladesh side opted to keep their Indian nationalities, meaning they will leave their homes by November for India where they will be resettled in West Bengal.

 

In India, all of the Bangladeshis living in the 51 Bangladesh enclaves decided to switch nationalities.