Nepal's students recount horrors upon arrival home from Bangladesh

By Binod Prasad Adhikari
Kathmandu [Nepal], July 21 : Dozens of Nepali students managed to return to Nepal from violence-hit Bangladesh on Sunday. Upon arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, the returnees could not contain their emotions as they recounted the situation they encountered back in Dhaka.
It only had been three months since Sadiskhya Basnet flew to Bangladesh for her medical studies but had to flee back to Kathmandu due to the rising violence and communication blackout in Bangladesh.
"Back there all the communication means are down, so that the information cannot pass out. All the means of communication have been seized, and the situation there is critical," Basnet told ANI upon arrival at the airport on Sunday afternoon.
Basnet, a medical student in Inam Medical College claimed that security personnel came in search of the students who participated in the protest to detain them.
"Those Bengali friends who went onto the protests in the daytime, the Police used to come to our college during the night in search of them, after this we started to worry and phone communication with family was also not working. We were able to contact our family through the consultancy and come back to Nepal after making all the arrangements on our own," Basnet explained further.
"Curfew also has been imposed there, no internet and communication means, even we could not go out of the hostel, we could not remain disconnected with our family, how could we have sat back there?" she added.
Another medical student stood beside her father at the exit of the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu relaxed and happy to be back from the violence-hit areas.
"I feel safe obviously upon being back," the student, Krishpa Rai replied.
Rai said that the communication blackout had made it scarier with the situation turning grim for not being able to contact the family.
"We were pretty scared because we couldn't contact our parents. We couldn't contact anyone, all of us were really scared."
As per Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an estimated three thousand five hundred Nepali students are in Bangladesh in the course of their studies. On Saturday, the ministry said that approximately 800 Nepali students left Bangladesh for Nepal by air or via land border points.
"We packed our belongings and arranged the vehicle and moved out in the night all on our own. We stayed in the airport all night waiting for the entry and caught our flight in the morning and flew back to Kathmandu, all these were done by ourselves," Maulata, another Nepali student shared her story with ANI about how she along with her friends managed to land Kathmandu from Dhaka.
Nepal's Foreign Ministry has reiterated the government's commitment to ensuring the safety and security of all Nepali students in the South Asian country that has witnessed violent agitation in the past week.
"The Embassy of Nepal in Dhaka has coordinated with most of the students to facilitate their safe travel from various places in Bangladesh to Dhaka airport or to related border points," the ministry said in a post on X late evening on Saturday.
"It has been closely coordinating with universities, concerned authorities, and law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh."
Bangladeshi students intensified their agitation against the quotas for government jobs, which included 30 per cent reservation for the families of those who fought for independence from Pakistan.
The Bangladesh government has ordered all offices and institutions to stay closed for two days after over 120 people were killed this week during the protests, according to international news agencies.
In the capital city Dhaka, the epicentre of the protests, security forces have set up roadblocks to enforce a curfew.
Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli updating a status on Facebook, claimed the government made arrangements for Nepali students to return home.
"As per the demand of the student's family members, arrangements have been made to repatriate 17 students studying at Savar-based Enam Medical College via Dhaka airport at 4 am on Sunday," Nepal Prime Minister Oli wrote on social media late on Saturday evening.
In the post, he stated that the initiative came after meeting family members of some students in Bangladesh. He has also asked the concerned people to fill up the online forms as arranged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile, posting an 'urgent notice' on X, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba urged the students, their guardians and kin to submit applications through the online link arranged by the ministry for the same purpose.
As the student-led anti-government protests surge in Bangladesh, the country has imposed a curfew, and the authorities have disabled mobile internet services nationwide, citing the need to curb disinformation.
Following the curfew, the authorities have also shut down schools and universities indefinitely. Bangladesh announced a nationwide curfew on Friday evening after clashes between police and various student groups killed dozens of people.
The protests started after the students' violent backlash against a new policy to reserve a portion of government jobs for descendants of the nation's freedom fighters. Moreover, the protesters attacked the state television headquarters in Dhaka and set fire to police booths on Thursday as they called for a "complete shutdown" of the country.
The ongoing running street battles between security forces using rubber bullets and tear gas have forced life in several neighborhoods of Bangladesh to a halt.
The protests have been driven by demands for reform of the country's quota system for civil service jobs, which reserves positions for specific groups, including descendants of those who participated in the 1971 War of Independence against Pakistan.
Students like Sushmita Kumari who returned back from Bangladesh vow to return back for her degree after the situation calms down.
"I am in final years of my studies, I want to complete my studies and need my degree, I would return there if the situation goes right. If they hold talks and solve it..." Sushmita Kumari said.