Bangladesh envoy in Delhi summoned
Bangladesh’s Acting High Commissioner Md. Nurul Islam leaves from the South Block after he was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs over border-related issues, in New Delhi, Monday (Jan 13, 2025). Photo: Collected
The Indian external affairs ministry on Monday summoned Nural Islam, deputy high commissioner of Bangladesh to India, to discuss the escalating tensions between New Delhi and Dhaka, NDTV reported from New Delhi.
The move came a day after the Bangladesh foreign affairs ministry summoned Indian high commissioner Pranay Verma following allegations that India was attempting to construct fences at five specific locations along the 4,156-kilometre Indo-Bangladeshi border in violation of a bilateral agreement governing border activities, according to the NDTV report available online.
Diplomatic ties between India and Bangladesh have been stable historically. But, former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster after her government was toppled in a student-led revolution, her subsequent refuge in India, straining relationships between the two nations, it said.
Last month, the interim Bangladesh government led by Muhammad Yunus requested India to send back Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India for shelter amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5, to face trial.
Dhaka has already issued an arrest warrant for Hasina, who was supposed to appear in court in November 2024, to face charges of ‘massacres, killings and crimes against humanity’.
On Sunday the Bangladesh government urged India to refrain from any provocative actions amid tensions along the border over the construction of border fencing in violation the international law at several points with additional deployment of forces on both sides.
The foreign ministry summoned the high commissioner of India to Bangladesh Pranay Verma on the day to express its concern over the construction of barbed wire fence and protest at the recent killing of a Bangladeshi national by the Indian Border Security Force in the border.
Foreign secretary Md Jashim Uddin conveyed to the Indian envoy that such activities, particularly the attempt to construct unauthorised barbed wire fence and the related operational actions by the BSF, had caused tensions and disturbances in the border, said a foreign ministry release issued later on the day.
‘The foreign secretary called upon the government of India to advise all authorities concerned in India to refrain from any provocative actions that could escalate tensions along the shared border,’ said the release.
On Sunday, home affairs adviser retired lieutenant general Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said that the Border Guard Bangladesh was on the alert along borders and their strong position accompanied by local people forced India to stop the construction of barbed wire fences at five points in Chapainawabganj, Naogaon and Lalmonirhat.
Referring to the 1975 Joint India-Bangladesh Guidelines for border authorities, the home affairs adviser said that there was a specific ban on defence-related activities within 150 years from the zero line of the border.
If any country wants to construct any structure in the 150 yards of the no man’s land, it has to take permission from the other country, he said.
India had already constructed barbed wire fences in areas of 3,271 kilometres of the 4,156 km border, according to the home adviser.
New Age
