By Arka Deb
Kolkata: In a video call from Bangladesh on December 2, 26-year-old Sunali Khatun, a nine-month pregnant migrant worker of Paikar village in West Bengal’s Birbhum district who was pushed into the neighbouring country, broke down. She was speaking to her family – and especially her six-year-old daughter – after 102 days. “I want to come back home quickly,” she told her father Bhadu Sheikh.
Today, the Union government told the Supreme Court that it will bring her and her minor son back on humanitarian grounds, thus splitting Sunali, her child, and the rest of her family.
A judicial magistrate in Chapai Nawabganj, Bangladesh, on December 1, granted bail to Sunali Khatun, Sweety Bibi, her husband Danish Sheikh on a bond of Tk 5,000 each.
Sunali, her husband Danish Sheikh, their eight-year-old son Sabir, and Sweety Bibi with her two minor children Kurban Sheikh and Iman had been detained in Chapai Nawabganj correctional facility since August 20 as alleged “infiltrators.”
Present in court were Paikar resident Mofizul Sheikh, the family’s lawyer Shafiq Enayetullah, and local guarantor Faruk Ali.
The bail came with conditions: local police must submit a report on the detainees every 10 days, and the Chapai Nawabganj Model Police Station has been directed to ensure their safety. The group is now staying in a rented house at Nayagola in Chapai Nawabganj. Today (December 3), Sunali is scheduled to undergo a medical examination.
Speaking to The Wire shortly after her release from detention, a distraught Sunali had said, “What was our crime that we were pushed into Bangladesh? I don’t have much time left. I am in my ninth month of pregnancy. Through you, I fold my hands and beg – I want to go back to my country.”
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.