New Delhi, 23 December. After the murder of a Hindu youth in Bangladesh last week, the tension in diplomatic relations between India and Bangladesh is deepening. In this sequence, on Tuesday India summoned Bangladesh High Commissioner Riyaz Hamidullah. This was the second time within a week that the Indian External Affairs Ministry has summoned the Bangladeshi envoy and lodged its strong objection.
The move came hours after Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry had summoned Indian High Commissioner Prannoy Verma to New Delhi and expressed ‘serious concern’ over incidents taking place outside Bangladeshi diplomatic missions in India.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) clarified that the Bangladeshi High Commissioner was conveyed India’s serious concern over the deteriorating security situation in Dhaka and possible threats to the Indian High Commission there. MEA said that some ‘radical elements’ are openly talking about creating a security challenge around the Indian mission.
India had called Hamidullah last week and expressed concern over the security of Indian missions in Dhaka. At the same time, Bangladesh expressed ‘serious concern’ to Indian Ambassador Prannoy Verma over the protests outside its High Commission in Delhi and the vandalism at the Siliguri Visa Centre.
At the same time, India completely rejected the ‘false and misleading narrative’ being spread regarding the recent incidents in Bangladesh and said that till now the interim government has neither conducted a proper investigation nor shared any concrete evidence with India.
Violence and fundamentalism worsened the situation
It is noteworthy that the atmosphere in Bangladesh is tense after the assassination of fundamentalist leader Sharif Usman Hadi. The protesters claimed without any evidence that an ‘Indian hand’ was behind the killing and resorted to heavy violence. However, this claim was rejected by his own army.
Dipu Chandra Das’s Strong anger in India after the murder
The situation worsened when Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu labourer, was allegedly beaten to death by a mob in Mymensingh and the body was then burnt. There was intense anger in India also regarding this incident. On Tuesday, thousands of workers of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal demonstrated outside the Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi, due to which 15,000 security personnel had to be deployed there.
False narrative and security challenge
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) clarified that India rejects the ‘false narrative’ that is being spread by extremist elements. India has also expressed displeasure that the interim government of Bangladesh has not yet shared any credible investigation report on the incidents of violence. Apart from this, the threat by a Bangladeshi leader to isolate India’s ‘Seven Sisters’ (North-Eastern States) has also added fuel to the fire.
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