On June 26, Indian forces expelled eight-month pregnant Sunali Bibi, her husband, Danish Sheikh, and their eight-year-old son at gunpoint from the country they had always called home. Sent into Bangladesh, the expecting mother was separated from her four-year-old daughter, who was left behind in India.
At Sunali’s home in Paikar, a town in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, the little girl has been crying every night for her mother for two months, says her grandmother Jyotsnara Bibi.
“If I, my mother and father are Indian citizens, how can my sister not be a citizen?” asks Karishma, Sunali’s sister. Karishma worries about what will happen to the baby if the delivery takes place in Bangladesh. The stress and trauma have already taken a toll on Sunali’s health, with her husband scrambling for food and medicine.
Another family from a nearby village endured the same ordeal. Sweety Bibi and her two children were detained in Delhi and deported with Sunali’s family. Sweety’s husband went missing six years ago, and she has been the family’s breadwinner, according to her brother.
In a video message, both families appeared with folded hands and tearful pleas, appealing for help to return to India. They have since filed a habeas corpus petition in the Calcutta High Court with support from the West Bengal government.
The six deportees, including three children, were detained by Delhi Police during a crackdown on undocumented migrants. Since May, several BJP-ruled states have carried out raids in settlements of Bengali workers, detaining hundreds over alleged discrepancies in documents.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.