India, Bangladesh summon envoys to express concern over protests

The latest blip in ties came a day after the Bangladesh High Commission temporarily suspended visa and consular operations in the national capital as well as in Agartala citing “unavoidable circumstances”. On Sunday, India had suspended its visa operations in Chittagong as unrest spread across Bangladesh over Hadi’s killing.

On Tuesday, the Bangladesh foreign affairs ministry said in a statement that Verma was summoned to convey Dhaka’s concerns over the “regrettable incidents outside the perimeter of the Bangladesh High Commission and residence in New Delhi on (December 20), and the acts of vandalism at the Bangladesh Visa Centre in Siliguri on (December 22) by different extremist elements”.

Protestors try to break barricades during a protest by Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal over the alleged atrocities against Hindus and the mob lynching of Dipu Chandra Das in Bangladesh, near the Bangladesh High Commission, in New Delhi on Tuesday (ANI Photo)

Bangladesh also expressed “deep concern over (the) violent protests” and asked India to “immediately take appropriate steps in accordance with its international and diplomatic obligations to safeguard the dignity and security of diplomatic personnel and establishments”.

In New Delhi, meanwhile, hundreds of protesters associated with the VHP and Bajrang Dal staged a protest on Tuesday near the Bangladesh High Commission in the high-security diplomatic zone of Chanakyapuri.

The protesters shouted slogans and breached police barricades in their demonstration over the killing on December 18 of Das, a factory worker, who was lynched by a mob and his body set on fire over alleged blasphemy in Mymensingh’s Baluka.

Bangladesh’s Education Adviser Professor C R Abrar visited Das’s family in Mymensingh on Tuesday to convey the interim government’s sympathy and support, according to a statement issued by the office of Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus.

Bangladesh Education Adviser CR Abrar meets Rabilal Das, father of Dipu Chanrda Das, and expresses his condolences, in Mymensingh on Tuesday. (@ChiefAdviserGoB X/ANI Photo)Abrar reiterated that the killing was a heinous criminal act and assured the family that all alleged offences would be investigated and justice ensured, the statement said. Twelve persons have been arrested so far in the case.

India and Bangladesh have also countered each other on a protest held earlier outside the High Commission in New Delhi. While India has denied any security breach, Bangladesh said it “entirely rejected” that assertion. In its statement Tuesday, Bangladesh also called upon India to conduct “a thorough investigation” into the incidents.

Hadi was shot by masked attackers while leaving a mosque in Dhaka and died of injuries last Thursday while being treated in Singapore. The shooting came a day after Bangladeshi authorities announced a date for the first elections since the uprising in 2024, which Hadi had been planning to contest as an independent candidate.

Bangladesh’s ties with India have soured over several issues, including the safety of minorities, with Delhi summoning Dhaka’s envoy multiple times and India’s envoy being summoned by the other side at least twice in the past two weeks.