The Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi has stopped issuing visas. The decision comes against the backdrop of heightened tensions between India and Bangladesh after several Indian visa application centres in Bangladesh were targeted by mobs following the killing of radical leader Sharif Osman Hadi on December 12 by unidentified gunmen.
According to a Hindu report, unrest escalated over the weekend when a group of men gathered outside the main gate of the Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi, shouting slogans and allegedly issuing threats at diplomats inside the premises.
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Visa disruptions risk hurting people-to-people ties
Bangladesh media reported the incident, prompting a response from New Delhi. India’s Ministry of External Affairs described the reports as “misleading propaganda,” while Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs termed the protest outside its mission an “unjustifiable incident,” The Hindu said.
This is the first time Bangladesh has suspended visa services from its High Commission in New Delhi since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, 2024.
India had earlier suspended visa services in Dhaka during July–August 2024 at the height of the anti-Hasina uprising. Though services were paused on multiple occasions thereafter, officials told The Hindu that India had resumed issuing around 2,000 visas daily for Bangladeshi nationals by November this year.
The latest indefinite shutdown of Indian Visa Application Centres (IVACs) followed attacks on facilities in Khulna and Chittagong, as well as the Assistant High Commission in Rajshahi, amid rumours that the suspected assassins had fled to India.
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Bangladesh’s Home Affairs Adviser Lt. General Mohammed Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (retd.) said on Monday that authorities did not yet have precise information on the whereabouts of the assailants.
Earlier on Monday evening, the Assistant High Commission of Bangladesh in Agartala announced that all visa and consular services would remain closed from Tuesday due to “unavoidable circumstances,” The Hindu reported. The announcement followed a demonstration outside the mission on Sunday, with local political leaders demanding its closure.
