India and Bangladesh hold Foreign Secretary-level talks amid escalating tensions

Dhaka: Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri held talks with his Bangladesh counterpart Md. Jashim Uddin in Dhaka on Monday afternoon, with the delegation-level discussions between the two neighbouring countries lasting nearly two hours, local media reported.

Misri, who is on a day-long visit to Dhaka, also held a separate one-on-one meeting with the Bangladesh Foreign Secretary at the state guest house Padma.

Local media in Dhaka reported that the top Indian diplomat is scheduled to call on the country’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Md. Towhid Hossain and also Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, who heads the interim government in Bangladesh currently, before flying back to New Delhi in the evening.

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The meetings take place as relations between the two countries have nosedived over the past few months with India being extremely concerned about the surge in extremist rhetoric, increasing incidents of violence, and provocations, especially against the Hindu community, in Bangladesh.

In September, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar had held a bilateral meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Advisor Touhid Hossain, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York which was the first high-level engagement between the two countries after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster in August 2024.

“India has consistently and strongly raised with the Bangladesh government the threats and targeted attacks on Hindus and other minorities. Our position on the matter is very clear. The interim government must live up to its responsibility of protecting all minorities,” the MEA stated last month after the arrest and jailing of Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, a spokesperson of the Bangladesh Sammilit Sanatan Jagran Jote who is also associated with Iskcon Bangladesh.

Hindus all over the world have also been shocked by multiple attacks on the community and other minorities by extremist elements in Bangladesh.

“We are concerned about the surge in extremist rhetoric, increasing incidents of violence, and provocations. These developments cannot be dismissed only as media exaggerations. We once again call upon Bangladesh to take all steps for protection of all minorities,” the MEA has stated previously.

Several leaders of the Bangladesh’s interim government and others, including Hasnat Abdullah and Sarjis Alam, who led the so-called ‘Anti-Discrimination Student Movement’ that eventually resulted in the fall of Hasina government – continue to orchestrate a disinformation campaign against Hindus and spiritual organisation Iskcon, calling it as an “agent of the Awami League” that should be banned in the country immediately.

The former Bangladesh PM has also strongly condemned the “tortures” inflicted on common people by the interim government in Bangladesh and called for “immediate release” of the Hindu priest.

“A top leader of the Sanatan religious community has been unjustly arrested, he must be released immediately,” said the Bangladesh Awami League (AL) president and daughter of the ‘Father of the Nation’ Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, last month.

“A temple has been burnt in Chittagong. Previously, mosques, shrines, churches, monasteries and houses of the Ahmadiyya community were attacked, vandalized and looted and set on fire. Religious freedom and security of life and property of people of all communities should be ensured,” Hasina stated.

“After the killing of innumerable Awami League leaders and workers, students and members of the law and order forces, harassment is going on through assaults and arrests. I strongly condemn and protest against these anarchist activities,” she had added.