Bangladesh summons Indian envoy, protests continue in Tripura, West Bengal
Indian high commissioner Pranay Verma said the bilateral relationship between the two countries couldn’t be reduced to one issue
NEW DELHI: Dhaka on Tuesday summoned the Indian envoy to protest the storming of its consulate in Agartala even as protests continued in several states bordering Bangladesh over the targeting of minority communities and arrest of monk Chinmoy Krishna Das.
Indian high commissioner Pranay Verma was summoned to the foreign ministry in Dhaka, where he met Bangladesh’s acting foreign secretary Riaz Hamidullah for almost half an hour on Tuesday afternoon, according to local media reports. Senior Indian diplomats have not been called into the foreign ministry in recent years, and the development reflected the downturn in ties since former premier Sheikh Hasina stepped down in August.
Protests against the persecution of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority and the arrest of Das on sedition charges last month were organised on Tuesday in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and West Bengal. A large group of protestors had barged into Bangladesh’s assistant high commission in Agartala, the capital of Tripura, and ransacked property on Monday.
India described the breach in Agartala as “deeply regrettable” and increased security for all Bangladeshi missions in India.
Speaking to reporters on emerging from the foreign ministry in Dhaka, the Indian envoy said his meeting with Hamidullah was part of “normal regular exchanges” and that the bilateral relationship couldn’t be reduced to one issue. Verma said the Indian government was willing to engage with Bangladesh’s interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to ensure regional peace and security.
“This is an important relationship for us and this is something that we keep...talking about. We have such a wide-ranging [and] multifaceted relationship and as I’ve said, you cannot reduce it to one issue or one agenda,” Verma said.
“We are willing to engage with the interim government of Bangladesh and we remain interested in working with the government of Bangladesh to fulfil our shared aspirations for peace, security and development,” he said.
Noting that India wants to build a “positive, stable, constructive relationship” with Bangladesh, Verma said the two countries share “many inter-dependencies” that can be built on for the mutual benefit of both sides. “The number of positive developments that have taken place in our relationship in the last few months, whether it is trade, power transmission, supply of essential commodities – we have maintained a lot of positive momentum in the relationship,” he said.
There was no official word from the external affairs ministry on the development.
Bangladesh’s foreign ministry on Monday said it “deeply resents” the “violent demonstration and attack by a large group of protesters of the Hindu Sangharsh Samity” on the consulate in Agartala and called on the Indian government to investigate the incident and prevent further acts of violence against Bangladesh’s missions.
The Bangladeshi consulate in Agartala on Tuesday suspended all consular services because of security concerns. “Given the security situation, all visa and consular services at the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission, Agartala, will remain suspended until further notice. This comes into effect immediately,” said a notification issued by first secretary Mohammad Al-Ameen.
The Tripura police arrested seven people for allegedly breaching the consulate and damaging property, officials said on Tuesday. Three police officers were also suspended and departmental proceedings were initiated against them for negligence of duty while posted at the consulate.
Tripura chief minister Manik Saha has condemned the incident. “Peaceful agitations/protests can continue but such behaviour is absolutely undesirable,” he said in a post on X late Monday.
The protests continued in Tripura on Tuesday. Former Union minister Pratima Bhoumik participated in a “Bangladesh Chalo” rally organised in Agartala by the Sanatani Yuva. “We gathered here with our demand of stopping atrocities on minorities in Bangladesh and unconditional bail for Chinmoy Das,” Bhoumik said.
Hindu organisations staged protests and organised rallies in various parts of Assam. The Lok Jagaran Manch organised rallies in the Biswanath and Dhubri districts that were joined by a large number of people, who shouted slogans against the Bangladesh government and demanded an end to atrocities against Hindus. A protest was also organised in Hojai district.
More than 1,000 monks from across West Bengal joined a protest at the Petrapole land border crossing. The monks began gathering a short distance from the border checkpost on Monday for the protest organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti.
Swami Paramatmananda, president of the Bengal chapter of the Samiti, has said the protest will continue till the Bangladesh government “takes action to stop attacks on Hindus and temples”.
Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, said that human rights had been violated in Bangladesh as the lawyers of Chinmoy Das couldn’t appear in court after they were allegedly beaten by fundamentalists. He was reacting to reports that no lawyer appeared for Das during a bail hearing in a court in Chattogram.
The Bangladeshi court deferred the hearing of Das’s bail petition till January 2. Swatantra Gauranga Das, an associate of Das, claimed no lawyer represented the monk due to threats from a “politically motivated lawyers’ group”.
Das was arrested on November 25 and charged with sedition for allegedly raising a saffron flag above Bangladesh’s national flag in Chattogram on October 25. The arrest triggered protests by supporters of the monk, who was previously with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon). An assistant government prosecutor was killed in a protest in Chattogram after the monk was denied bail.
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