Bond across border, revived 40 years on.
Md Ali Sarkar, 66, of Baliamari village in Kurigram district, Bangladesh, had not only taken an active part in the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971, but also trained in Cooch Behar under the Indian Army on how to use a gun.
Last week, he was almost inside India again, but this time not for training under the Indian Army. Sarkar is among 25 petty traders and shopkeepers of Baliamari who have been selected by the Bangladesh government to trade in the Kalaichar border haat between the two countries that has just been reopened.
I remember coming to the border haat even when we were East Pakistan. We used to buy a lot of jackfruit from the Garo and Hajong people on the Indian side and carry them to our markets in bullock-carts, said Sarkar, recalling the pre-1971 days when the weekly border haat here used to be a humming marketplace.
The border haat, which was reopened jointly by Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and his Bangladeshi counterpart Md Faruk Khan, has kicked off the revival of as many as 80 such haats that had existed between Meghalaya (in those days the Garo and Khasi Hills districts of Assam) till 1971.
Bond across border, revived 40 years on - Indian Express
Md Ali Sarkar, 66, of Baliamari village in Kurigram district, Bangladesh, had not only taken an active part in the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971, but also trained in Cooch Behar under the Indian Army on how to use a gun.
Last week, he was almost inside India again, but this time not for training under the Indian Army. Sarkar is among 25 petty traders and shopkeepers of Baliamari who have been selected by the Bangladesh government to trade in the Kalaichar border haat between the two countries that has just been reopened.
I remember coming to the border haat even when we were East Pakistan. We used to buy a lot of jackfruit from the Garo and Hajong people on the Indian side and carry them to our markets in bullock-carts, said Sarkar, recalling the pre-1971 days when the weekly border haat here used to be a humming marketplace.
The border haat, which was reopened jointly by Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and his Bangladeshi counterpart Md Faruk Khan, has kicked off the revival of as many as 80 such haats that had existed between Meghalaya (in those days the Garo and Khasi Hills districts of Assam) till 1971.
Bond across border, revived 40 years on - Indian Express

