COVID-19: Govt asks Indian students in Bangladesh to stay in hostels

Indian government asked its students studying in Bangladesh not to panic and return to their hostels after 70 medical students from Kashmir stuck at the closed Petrapole-Benapole Indo-Bangladesh border check post near Bongaon in North 24 Paraganas district of West Bengal, reports Senior Journalist Smita Sharma.

New Delhi:Hours after videos surfaced of students from Kashmir appealing to Home and External Affairs Ministry to allow to come back to India via the Bangladesh border, sources have asserted that students need to stay put where they are.

"The High Commisison in Dhaka is in touch with Indians, including students, in Bangladesh and is taking all steps necessary for their welfare," assured Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla in exclusive remarks to ETV Bharat .

Earlier on Tuesday videos were circulated on social media of some 70 medical students from Kashmir stuck at the closed Petrapole-Benapole Indo-Bangladesh border check post near Bongaon in North 24 Paraganas district of West Bengal.

“We have appealed several times to MEA to allow us to go through this checkpoint. We are not feeling safe at all. There are crowds here and we are putting ourselves to risk by being here. We are ready to spend the night here,” a young Kashmiri woman can be seen as appealing.

“We are 70 Kashmiri students studying in various medical colleges in Bangladesh. We are stuck in this Petrapole-Benapole border. We traveled for 12-16 hours to reach here. Our colleges and hostels are closed and we have been asked to vacate and go home. We are at this border since last evening and we have not eaten a morsel.We will sit here only till we are not allowed to cross over,” appealed another young boy.

However Indian officials have made it clear that no evacuation will happen at this point through the border which is among the list of locked down land customs Check Posts with neighbours including Bangladesh, Nepal ,Pakistan and Bhutan . “In view of the advisory on restrictions in movements from other countries into India and within India itself, border crossing are suspended. Students are therefore advised to go back to their hostels in the interest of their health and safety and also of the community,” said an official source.

Sources also claimed that these students progressed towards the border junction Monday night despite being clearly advised by the Indian High Commission against it in view of the restrictions in force for an incoming international and also domestic travel in India.

“It is learnt that the Principal of the college has denied reports that students have been asked to vacate the hostel and has confirmed that they would be accommodated in the hostels,” said the official source.

There are around 7000 Indian students in Bangladesh. Messages and video appeals meanwhile continue to surface through social media of various Indians specially students stranded across the globe in countries including in US, Netherlands, France even as India has gone under a lockdown with domestic flight operations also coming to a halt from midnight of 24th March.

External Affairs Ministry sources have clarified that various countries have made provisions of buying groceries for stranded foreign nationals. In Malaysia people who were stranded at the Kuala Lumpur airport in transit were supplied some food packets by the Indian mission. While temporary accommodation has been facilitated through Gurudwaras or subsidised tie up with local hotels for stranded Indians in cities like New York. Officials say that while they are working closely with

Indian community organisations overseas to facilitate stranded nationals, but there will be no evacuations till 31st March barring exceptions where the situation is as grim and worrisome as in Italy or Iran.