The Sudder Street area in Kolkata, once a hub of Western foreigners mostly comprising backpackers and students on their gap year, is now Little Bangladesh. The hotels are now filled with visitors from Bangladesh who come to Kolkata for medical tourism or shopping.
On Monday afternoon, as the news of Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and flight from Bangladesh spread, Bangladeshi tourists in Kolkata took out a victory procession to celebrate the end of the Sheikh Hasina Government.
Shouting slogans demanding the punishment of the former Prime Minister, the Bangladeshi tourists said that the students who were killed by the Hasina Government should be given State honours.
Hamid Sheikh, a young businessman from Pabna district in Bangladesh, told The Daily Guardian: “The Hasina Government killed 1000 students and ran a dictatorial regime for the past 20 years. Now at last, we are free. The new Government should give the same honour to the murdered students as given to the Muktijoddhas (freedom fighters) who fought to free our country.”