As protests and clashes over government job quotas continue in Bangladesh, a repatriation flight today brought back 67 Bhutanese students studying in the country. While Bangladesh is currently under curfew, the Royal Bhutanese Embassy in Dhaka is facilitating the evacuation of students. According to Reuters, Bangladesh has been cut off from the world with no internet services since Thursday.
Following an advisory from the Prime Minister’s Office, the 67 students arrived home this morning.
The students thanked the embassy in Dhaka while sharing their ordeals amid the ongoing crises in Bangladesh.
“We know that whatever situation happened in Dhaka was very scary, and students know that it was very scary. I would to thank the embassy and everyone involved for helping us and for guiding the entire travel,” said Upsana Gurung, a student at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College.
“It first started with some protests in our college. And then at first, we did not know about it. It started in the first week of July. And then after a week, we knew about it because the students from our college started protesting. The next day the college asked us to evacuate the hostel and we were asked to go to the embassy,” said Pranita Adhikari, another student at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College.
She added that their flight to Paro on Saturday was cancelled due to the curfew.
“The college administration had sent out a notice that we had to evacuate the hostels immediately because the situation was getting really bad. There was vandalisation of the school properties, and the college properties and then the protest was going on and then everything was being shut down. People were getting hurt in the street, and there were mass shootings,” said Nikita Giri, also a student at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College.
She added that a few students were stuck in their hostels but were later evacuated to the embassy.
The Prime Minister’s Office has provided three contact numbers for the embassy. However, students are completely cut off from the Internet, and telephone lines are also weak.
Meanwhile, 25 more students from Rangpur Community Medical College and Rangpur Dental College reached home via road yesterday.
Foreign Affairs and External Trade Minister, DN Dhungyel, told BBS that not all students have been contacted individually. He added that the embassy has contacted the respective colleges to ensure their safety.
The minister also said that once a sufficient number of students reach the embassy, a repatriation flight will be sent to Dhaka.
Out of the 257 students studying in Bangladesh, 92 have returned home.
Devika Pradhan
Edited by Sherub Dorji
