Agartala mission breached amid protest over Bangladesh
Authorities in Dhaka responded strongly to the incident with its foreign ministry urging authorities in India to take preventive steps
A large group of people protesting the persecution of the Hindu minority in Bangladesh barged into the Bangladesh consulate in Agartala and vandalised it on Monday, prompting New Delhi to describe the breach as “deeply regrettable” and step up security for all of the country’s missions in India.
Authorities in Dhaka responded strongly to the incident with its foreign ministry urging authorities in India to take steps to “prevent any further acts of violence against the diplomatic missions of Bangladesh”.
With attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh and the arrest of Bangladeshi monk Chinmoy Krishna Das on sedition charges becoming hot button issues, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in the matter on Monday and said the Indian government should seek the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Bangladesh. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) responded to her comments by saying she was shedding “crocodile tears”.
Thousands of people joined a protest organised by the Hindu Sangharsh Samity in Agartala, the capital of Tripura, to voice their anger at the arrest of Das and violence against Hindus in Bangladesh. People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that scores of protestors broke through police barricades and barged into Bangladesh’s assistant high commission, ransacking property and raising alarm among Bangladeshi diplomats and officials.
The handful of Bangladeshi officials present at the premises were unharmed though the incident left them shaken, the people said.
“The incident earlier today of the breach of premises at the Bangladesh assistant high commission in Agartala is deeply regrettable,” the external affairs ministry said in a brief statement.
“Government is taking action to step up security arrangements for the Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi and their deputy/assistant high commissions in the country,” the statement added. Besides the mission in Agartala, Bangladesh has consular premises in Guwahati, Kolkata and Mumbai.
The external affairs ministry emphasised that diplomatic and consular properties “should not be targeted under any circumstances”.
Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “deeply resents” the “violent demonstration and attack by a large group of protesters of the Hindu Sangharsh Samity” on the mission. The statement said the “protesters were allowed” to enter the premises by “breaking down the main gate...in a pre-planned manner”, while local police were “found not to be active in containing the situation”.
Besides damaging property inside the mission, the protesters “desecrated the national flag of Bangladesh”, the statement said. The “heinous attack” on the mission violates the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Bangladesh government called on its Indian counterpart to investigate the incident, prevent further acts of violence against Bangladesh’s missions and ensure the security of Bangladeshi officials.
The people cited above said there were no plans to temporarily shut down the Bangladeshi missions in Agartala or any other location. “We are hoping that good sense will prevail and things will return to normal,” one of the people said.
It is understood that the Bangladeshi side is likely to lodge a protest against the breach of its consular premises.
Ties between India and Bangladesh have been strained since former prime minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down in the face of widespread protests in August and an interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus assumed office. India has repeatedly expressed its concerns over increasing extremist rhetoric and violence targeting Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh.
Modi too raised the issue during a phone conversation with Yunus, though the Bangladeshi side has maintained that reports of attacks and targeting of Hindus and their places of worship are being exaggerated by the Indian media. Yunus has also spoken about seeking Hasina’s extradition from India, where she sought shelter after fleeing Bangladesh.
On Friday, India again urged Bangladesh’s interim government to protect Hindus and other minorities in the face of threats and targeted attacks and called for the case of Das, a former member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) to be dealt with in a fair and transparent manner.
Both Tripura and West Bengal, which share a long border with Bangladesh, have witnessed protests in recent days against the persecution of Hindus in the neighbouring country. Protestors have also demanded the release of Das, who was detained by police at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on November 25 and charged with sedition for allegedly raising a saffron flag above Bangladesh’s national flag in Chittagong on October 25.
The arrest of Das was followed by the detention of more Iskcon members in Bangladesh. Over the weekend, Bangladesh’s immigration authorities at the Benapole land border crossing reportedly barred a large group of Iskcon monks from entering India even though they possessed valid travel documents.
On Monday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee urged the Central government to seek the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Bangladesh and sought Modi’s personal intervention to secure the safety of religious minorities in the neighbouring country. She also demanded the external affairs minister should inform Parliament about India’s stance on the situation in Bangladesh.
“We have families, properties and loved ones in Bangladesh. We accept whatever stance the government of India takes on this, but we condemn atrocities on religious grounds anywhere in the world and appeal to the Union government and the prime minister to intervene,” she said while speaking in the state assembly.