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New Delhi: Indian archers endured a full-night chaos when their return to Indian from Dhaka post the Asian Championships was delayed by a day due to a cancelled flight. This forced the medal-winning archers to stay at a substandard shelter after navigating through the violence-hit Bangladeshi capital with security.
Out of the 23-strong squad, eleven members which included two minors were left stranded for nearly 10 hours at the airport amid repeated flight delays and no support from the airline on which they were booked. It was at a time when Dhaka witnessed violence on the streets as it awaited a special tribunal's verdict against deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a case of alleged crimes against humanity.
The group which suffered the ordeal included senior archers like Abhishek Verma, Jyoti Surekha and Olympian Dhiraj Bommadevara. All the archers managed to reach the Dhaka airport on Saturday for their 9.30 pm flight to Delhi only to be told that the boarding has been delayed due to a technical snag and hence would not take off.
After they were informed about the flight cancellation, the seven Indian archers, including a woman, remained inside the terminal till 2 am with not much clarity. It was further announced by the airport staff that no alternate flight would be arranged that night which forced the team to step out of the airport only to face a worst situation.
From the airport, they were put into a local bus whish had no windows and taken nearly half an hour away to a makeshift lodge. The place where they were taken was not even a proper hotel but instead a dormitory with six beds in one room for the women and only one filthy toilet.
Abhishek Verma told PTI that '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,'.
'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), alleged.
Their attempts to make alternative arrangements also could not work out as they could not do any international transaction. He further said that no international cards were accepted there so they failed to do anything on their own.
The Indian contingent reached back to the airport at 7 in the morning and were caught in further delays after reaching Delhi as several archers missed their onward journeys to other cities in the country. The 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.
