Habibe Millat shook his head fervently, his hands rising up to his face in disgust, as he recalled how he fled Dhaka in October 2024 after a student revolution swept through Bangladesh.

“I did not see sunlight for seven weeks while I was hiding in Dhaka,” said the 59-year-old former MP from Awami League, the Sheikh Hasina-led party that ruled Bangladesh with an iron grip for 15 years until it was overthrown by a popular uprising.

While Hasina flew to Delhi to escape the violent mobs on August 5, 2024, Millat was able get away only several weeks later. The journey to Kolkata took him 22 hours, he said, as he made his way across the border by car, motorbike and on foot.

“Even once I got here, I had to sleep on the floor for four nights because I had no money,” the former heart surgeon add

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