A tribal man languishing in a Bangladesh prison finally established contact with his parents in Tripura 16 years after his disappearance, thanks to a programme of the International Committee of Red Cross connecting the families with missing people.
Amarbiswa, son of Biswajit Jamatia and Annapati of Malbasa village in Dhalai district, disappeared in year 2000. The family tried its best to trace the 21-year-old youth, but in vain.
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The family was elated after receiving a letter from Mr. Amarbiswa, now 37, lodged in the Moulavibazar district jail in Bangladesh. He had handed over a letter to Bangladesh Red Crescent which was looking for missing people in Bangladesh prisons.
The letter landed in the Tripura unit of the Indian Red Cross Society through its headquarters in New Delhi. Mr. Amarbiswa’s parents broke down after officials delivered them the letter.
“In the letter he [Mr. Amarbiswa] narrated his pain and sufferings in captivity. He requested us to try to free him from Bangladesh jail,” a relative said on Sunday. His mother wrote a reply letter to Mr. Amarbiswa which the Red Cross would arrange to send to the Bangladesh jail. But the family and the officials could not confirm how Mr. Amarbiswa entered Bangladesh and for what crime he was convicted.
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Besides running the network to connect missing people with families, the Red Cross endeavoured to facilitate return of foreign nationals to home after completing the conviction period.
In May 2012, the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society sent a list of 10 persons from Tripura who were lodged in Comilla district jail despite having completed the sentence period. Bangladesh security forces had detained them for illegal trespass.