The Biharis, who are Muslims, were among a larger group who moved from India's Bihar State to then-East Pakistan in 1947, at the time of the partition of India. In 1971, following a bloody struggle for independence, East Pakistan became Bangladesh. After the conflict, many Biharis, having supported Pakistan in the war, migrated from Bangladesh to Pakistan. However, most were too poor to make the move. The residual population remained stranded in Bangladesh, waiting for the day when Pakistan would send for them.
Crime is also a problem, and young Bihari women are reportedly targeted by sex-traffickers.
The Bihari leadership continues to demand that Pakistan honor its obligations toward them. In the mid-1980s, Muslim settlers' appropriation of land belonging to ethnic minorities in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts region caused some 64,000 members of those groups, the vast majority Chakma, to flee to India and more than 60,000 others to become internally displaced. In December 1997, the government of Bangladesh signed a peace accord that ended a 25-year conflict with the Shanti Bahini, an insurgent group primarily comprised of ethnic Chakma. The signing of the accord paved the way for the repatriation of the entire refugee population. However, the situation of the more than 60,000 Chakma who had become internally displaced during the previous three decades remained unresolved at the end of 2000.