At first glance, Geneva Camp could be any of Dhaka's overcrowded and filthy slums. But above it flies Pakistan's green flag, with a red strip sewn on the side to represent, I was told, the suffering of the people there.In the camp's school, the children first sing the Bangladesh national anthem at assembly, and then, after prayers, they belt out Pakistan's. Loyalties are divided. "When I grow up I want to stay in this country and become a teacher," one girl tells me. But her classmate wants to go to Pakistan. " My grandmother lives in Karachi so I really want to go there," she says.
When I ask a group of youths which cricket team they supported when Pakistan recently played Bangladesh they all replied, "Pakistan". But did they want to live there? "No, it is far too dangerous. Bangladesh is a peaceful country. We don't have any Taleban here," they said. Their lessons are in the local language Bengali, but their mother tongue is Urdu, the language of north Indian Islam, which their great-grandparents brought to Bangladesh in 1947 when it was then the eastern wing of Pakistan.