Comedy of errors: Indian national finally gets Bangladesh visa

An Indian national, who failed to travel to Dhaka with his brother due to an unexpected error in his passport a week back, finally got his visa from Bangladesh High Commission in Agartala today.

“Finally, we got the visa from Bangladesh High Commission in Agartala,” Baharul Akram Laskar of Hailakandi district in Assam and elder brother of Baharul told The Daily Star over phone this evening.

The two brothers were all set to enter Bangladesh on January 13. They went to Zakiganj border checkpoint in Sylhet, but Baharul was not allowed to exit India as the last date of entry to Bangladesh in his visa expired days before the issue date of the visa.

Earlier, Qusar, a school teacher, said that as there was no Bangladesh mission in Assam, they submitted their tourist visa applications to the Bangladesh High Commission in Agartala, the capital of Tripura, through a local broker on December 23 last year.

They got their visas on January 9 and went to Zakiganj port on January 13 but when they approached the Indian immigration, the officials there identified that the date of issue and the last date of entry were incorrect in Baharul's visa.

The issuance date was written as “05-02-17” (February 5, 2017) and the last date of entry as “04-01-17” (January 5, 2017).

Later, they immediately contacted an official at the Bangladesh High Commission in Agartala over the phone, but the official allegedly refuted his complaint and also blamed them for the error.

Later, they submitted the passport for the correction on January 14. The Bangladesh mission issued the visa on January 18.

“As Agartala is at least 350km away from our district, it was late to reach the visa at our hands,” Qusar mentioned.   

However, Suktan Ahmed, an official of the Bangladesh High Commission in Agartala, told this correspondent that the mistake occurred as a large number of visas were being issued for the people intending to attend Biswa Ijtema in Tongi of Gazipur. He also apologised.

This newspaper ran a report under the headline of ‘Comedy of error’. 

Qusar at his Facebook account expressed his happiness after getting the visa. “Thank you, The Daily Star, for bringing the issue and highlighting our plight as a result we got our visa corrected swiftly. Looking forward to visiting opar Bangla, beautiful Bangladesh,” he wrote on his Facebook account.

Now, the brothers have planned to travel to Bangladesh on January 28.