B'desh sends back jailed 5-yr-old child, grandparents to India

Dhaka, Apr 29: Five-year-old Indian boy Ariful Sheikh, who along with his grandparents spent a year in a Bangladeshi jail after being sentenced to two months in prison for trespassing, was today sent back home through the land border.

"The five-year old child and his grandparents went back to India" through western Chuadanga frontiers, Deputy Commissioner or Administrative Chief of western Kushtia district, Banamali Bhoumik, told PTI on phone.

He said the district administration arranged a special car for 48-year old Hachimuddin Sheikh, his wife Mafroza Khatun (40) and their grandchild Ariful to take them to neighbouring Chuadanga, amid an opposition enforced nationwide daylong shutdown.

They crossed the Darshana border with the help of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and their Indian counterparts Border Security Force (BSF).

Jailer of Kushtia district prison, Nurul Islam, told PTI that the child was staying with his grandparents as a "released prisoner" for the past nine months on expiry of their two-month jail term on trespassing charges.

"The woman (grandmother) became restless in recent months and threatened to commit suicide as the procedural complications took a long time for their return home" in West Bengal after exchange of letters between the Foreign Ministries and border guards of the two countries, Islam said.

PTI