Bangladesh’s interim govt adviser accuses India of failure over Agartala incident

Dhaka: Terming the vandalism at Bangladesh's diplomatic mission in Agartala as India's “failure,” an influential adviser in the interim government on Tuesday asked New Delhi to reassess its neighbour afresh after the toppling of the Sheikh Hasina regime.

“We believe in a friendship based on equality and mutual respect. While Sheikh Hasina's government followed a pro-India policy to cling to power without elections, India must realise that this is not Sheikh Hasina's Bangladesh,” Law Affairs Adviser Asif Nazrul wrote in a Facebook post.

Deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India on August 5 following widespread protests against her Awami League-led government over a controversial job quota system. Three days later, Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate, took over as the Chief Adviser of the interim government.

In Agartala in the northeastern state of Tripura in India bordering Bangladesh, thousands of people took out a massive demonstration near Dhaka's mission on Monday against the arrest of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das as well as attacks on the Hindu community in Bangladesh.

The protesters reportedly barged into the Assistant High Commission of Bangladesh and allegedly resorted to vandalism, an incident the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) described as “deeply regrettable.” Nazrul alleged an outfit named Hindu Sangharsh Samiti was responsible for what he described as “the disgraceful act” when Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agartala was vandalised, and “Bangladesh’s national flag was set on fire.” “If a similar incident had occurred in Bangladesh under the name of a 'Muslim Sangharsh Samiti', how aggressively would India have reacted?” The Law Affairs Adviser also criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s remarks suggesting international peacekeepers' deployment in Bangladesh and said India should rather reflect on incidents of oppression against minorities and Dalits within its own borders.

He emphasised that Bangladesh is an independent, sovereign, and self-respecting nation driven by a “fearless and dynamic young generation.” His comments came a day after Dhaka officially lodged a strong protest with New Delhi saying the Agartala attack appeared to be a “pre-planned” one even as a large group of young people staged overnight protest on the premier Dhaka University campus and several other places in Bangladesh.

The tension between the two neighbours simmering since August 5, when Hasina fled to India, aggravated further with the arrest of the Hindu monk Das last week and subsequent freezing of his bank accounts, leading to violence when a government prosecutor was hacked to death in the Southeastern port city of Chattogram.

In a related development, a lawyer on Tuesday filed a writ petition in the High Court in Dhaka seeking ban on the broadcast of Indian TV channels in Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, after New Delhi said it “deeply” regretted the vandalism of Bangladesh’s Agartala mission, measures are underway for enhanced security arrangements at the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi and its other diplomatic posts across India on Tuesday.