Bangladesh on Tuesday summoned the Indian envoy in Dhaka to register its concerns about the vandalism and breach of security of its Assistant High Commission in Agartala a day earlier, reported The Hindu.
The Assistant High Commission in Agartala suspended all visa and consular services till further notice, citing security concerns.
In Dhaka, Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma met Acting Foreign Secretary Riaz Hamidullah on Tuesday after being summoned. After the meeting, Verma said that India and Bangladesh have a multi-faceted relationship that cannot be reduced to one agenda.
“A number of positive developments in the relationship in the last few months, like trade, power transmission, supply of essential commodities have taken place,” he said. “We are interested in working with the Government of Bangladesh to fulfil our shared aspirations for peace, security and development.”
The developments came after protestors from a group called the Hindu Sangharsh Samiti on Monday breached the security arrangements at the Assistant High Commission in Agartala, pulled down Bangladesh’s national flag and damaged property.
Seven persons were arrested for the vandalism, while three police officials were suspended for neglecting their duties.
On Monday, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry urged New Delhi to thoroughly investigate the attack, and said it violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which requires that diplomatic missions be protected.
The Bangladeshi foreign ministry alleged that protestors were “allowed to aggress into the premises” in a planned manner and that the vandalism took place in the presence of law enforcement officials. It alleged that the police “were found not to be active” in containing the situation.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that the vandalism of the diplomatic mission in Agartala was “deeply regrettable”, adding that it was taking action to boost security for Bangladesh’s diplomatic missions in India.
Protests against Hindu leader’s arrest
The Hindu Sangharsh Samiti was protesting the arrest of Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das in the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong on November 25. The monk was arrested on sedition charges after he allegedly insulted Bangladesh’s national flag during a rally in Chittagong on October 25.
Das is the spokesperson of the Sammilito Sanatani Jagaron Jote, an organisation that advocates for the rights of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh. He was formerly associated with the West Bengal-based International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON.
Following the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in August, several parts of Bangladesh reported incidents of violence against religious minorities.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in August urged Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, to ensure the safety of Hindus and other minorities. Yunus had claimed that reports of attacks on religious minorities in Bangladesh had been exaggerated.
Hindus safe in Bangladesh, says key Dhaka official
Shafiqul Alam, the press secretary of the Yunus-led government, maintained that Hindus were “well protected” in Bangladesh, India Today reported. He alleged that Indian media outlets were running an "industrial scale misinformation campaign" about the state of minorities in his country.
“They [Hindus] are more protected than they were during Sheikh Hasina's regime,” the official told India Today.
Alam acknowledged that a temple in Chittagong had been targeted, and that there had been attempts to target three ISKCON temples in the past week.
“We have stepped up security in all these places,” the press secretary said. “...We are here to establish the human rights of every Bangladeshi irrespective of gender, ethnicity, race, and colour.”
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