Refugee

Following a bloody, violent struggle, in 1971 East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh. Caught in the midst of this conflict were the Biharis, a Muslim minority group who originally fled the Indian state of Bihar when India was partitioned by the British in 1947. . Author Azmat Ashraf, himself a Bihari, was one year old when his family escaped India in 1953 for the relative safety of East Pakistan. Less than two decades later, after building a solid life for themselves, his family were targeted by communal violence during Bangladesh's turbulent birth, in which most of Azmat's family members were killed. . On the road once again, it wasn't until 2002, nearly fifty years after his first migration, that Azmat finally completed his epic search for a home, settling in Canada with his wife and three daughters. This book is a memoir of one family's fight for survival and to rebuild their lives following a series of unimaginable tragedies. It is a story of human resilience in the face of evil, of real love and true friendship, and an inspiration for refugees everywhere who are struggling to find a place of security and prosperity in this world.. Despite the personal tragedies that Azmat and his family have suffered, he has taken great care to provide a balanced view of the conflict of 1971 to help Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in particular and people of the subcontinent in general understand this painful part of their mutual history.