Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri to visit Bangladesh next week

New Delhi/Dhaka: Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will visit Dhaka on December 9 to hold Foreign Office Consultations with his Bangladesh counterpart Md. Jashim Uddin, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced Friday.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters at a weekly media briefing that during his visit, Misri will also have “several other meetings” in Dhaka as part of structured interactions with the Bangladesh side.

He did not comment if the top Indian diplomat would be calling on Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, who heads the interim government in Bangladesh currently, during his visit.

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.

“Had a meeting with Foreign Affairs Advisor Md. Touhid Hossain of Bangladesh in New York this evening. The conversation focussed on our bilateral ties,” EAM Jaishankar posted on X after the meeting.

Relations between the two countries have nosedived over the past few months as New Delhi remains extremely concerned with the surge in extremist rhetoric, increasing incidents of violence, and provocations, especially against the Hindu community, in Bangladesh.

“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 government headed by Sheikh Hasina in August – 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,” she 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,” Hasina added.

IANS