India's Champion Archers' Bangladesh Ordeal: Substandard Shelter, Filthy Toilet And Window-Less Bus Amid 'Riots'

Indian archers faced a chaotic night when their return from Dhaka after the Asian Championships was delayed due to a cancelled flight, forcing them to stay at a “substandard shelter” after navigating through

the violence-hit Bangladeshi capital without security.

Eleven members of the 23-strong squad, including two minors, were stranded for nearly 10 hours at the airport amid repeated flight delays and a “complete absence of support” from the airline they were booked with.

The group, which included senior pros Abhishek Verma, Jyoti Surekha, and Olympian Dhiraj Bommadevara, arrived at the Dhaka airport on Saturday for their 9.30 pm flight to Delhi, only to be informed after boarding that the aircraft had developed a technical snag and would not take off.

Bangladesh Riots

At the time, Dhaka was experiencing street violence as it awaited a special tribunal’s verdict against deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a case of alleged crimes against humanity.

The archers, seven of whom were women, remained inside the terminal until 2 am with no clear information. When the cancellation was finally announced, passengers were informed that no alternate flight would be arranged that night.

Once the team left the airport, their ordeal worsened.

They were herded into a “window-less local bus” and taken nearly half an hour away to a makeshift lodge, described by the country’s most decorated compound male archer Verma as being like a “Dharamshala.”

The 36-year-old said the place where the team was taken “was not even a proper hotel” but a cramped dormitory with six beds in one room for the women and only one filthy toilet.

“The ‘dharamshala’ that was given in the name of the guest house was very pathetic. In one room there were six double beds… There was only one toilet and the condition of the toilet was very bad,” he told PTI.

“It was such that I don’t think anyone could have taken a bath there,” Verma, who has consecutive Asian Games silver medals (2018 and 2022), added.

No International Payments

Their attempts to make alternative arrangements failed as they could not complete any international transactions.

“Personally, we could not manage anything as no international cards were accepted there. We couldn’t do get Uber because there was some error coming in payment method… And we were not confirmed about the flight.”

“Even if we knew we would get it by 11am in the morning, we would have stayed back at the airport. Because they (the airline) did not confirm anything.”

The contingent returned to the airport at 7 am the next morning, only to face further delays after reaching Delhi.

Several archers missed their onward connections to Hyderabad and Vijayawada, forcing costly re-bookings and long road journeys.

“Now all the flights were cancelled and the Federation had to bear the cost,” Verma said.

“One ticket, Mumbai to Delhi, I think the costing of each ticket is more than Rs 20,000. So if our Federation had to bear lakhs of rupees, whose responsibility is it?” he asked.

‘No Compensation’

Verma did not mince words in holding the airline accountable for not supporting the national squad in a difficult situation.

“Your plane broke down, and while you know that riots are happening outside… How did they put us in local transport? If something had happened in that bus, there were three teenage girls. Who would have been responsible?”

“There were seven female members of which four under 20. No, there was no compensation. It’s not that they didn’t know,” Verma alleged.

The nightmarish journey overshadowed India’s best-ever show at the Asian Championships, where they topped the medals table with 10 podium finishes, including six gold, three silver, and one bronze.

They finished ahead of heavyweight South Korea, who also ended with 10 medals but had fewer golds in their tally.

India had a 23-member contingent in Dhaka, traveling in three groups: to Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata.

The Kolkata group, which included Atanu Das, Deepika Kumari, and coaches Poornima Mahato and Rahul Banerjee, had no such issues, while the Mumbai batch, which included Maharashtra archers like Prathamesh Fuge and Sahil Jadhav, also reached on time.

(With inputs from Agencies)