Heartbreak as the historic Bangladesh-India land swap after 68 years splits families
Heartbreak as the historic Bangladesh-India land swap after 68 years splits families
The exchange at midnight on Friday will end one of the world's most intractable disputes that has kept thousands of people in limbo for nearly 70 years.

Chapala Barman is heartbroken as she contemplates leaving the home she has known all her life ahead of a historic land swap between Bangladesh and India that will divide her family.

The exchange at midnight on Friday will end one of the world's most intractable disputes that has kept thousands of people in limbo for nearly 70 years.

But it will also rip apart families like Barman's, leaving some stranded on one side of the border while relatives relocate to the other.

The 60-year-old Hindu is preparing to leave her home in Dahala-Khagrabari, a small island of Indian land inside Muslim-majority Bangladesh, with three of her sons.

She will have to leave four other grown-up children and their families behind in Dahala-Khagrabari, which is about to become part of Bangladesh.

Her three daughters have married Bangladeshis, making them ineligible to move, like her eldest son who was not counted in a joint census of the enclaves conducted in 2011.

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