New Delhi: India had no role to play in an address delivered by Sheikh Hasina that sparked violent protests in Bangladesh, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, accusing Dhaka of blaming its “internal governance issues” on India.
The MEA conveyed this to Bangladesh’s acting high commissioner Md. Nural Islam, whom it summoned on Friday (January 7) afternoon.
Protesters in Bangladesh on Wednesday night burned and partially demolished the erstwhile home of independence leader and statesman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in response to an address delivered by ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, who is also Rahman’s daughter, to her supporters.
The attack on the property was followed by leaders of Hasina’s Awami League party being targeted in around 20 districts in the country, the Daily Star reported. Bangladesh’s interim adviser Muhammad Yunus has appealed to his citizens to maintain peace.
In its statement, the MEA also said that Hasina on Wednesday made her remarks “in her individual capacity” and that conflating them for the Indian government’s views was “not going to help add positivity to bilateral relations”.
Instead, New Delhi chafed that officials of Yunus’s interim government make “regular statements” that “portray India negatively, holding us responsible for internal governance issues”.
“These statements by Bangladesh are in fact responsible for the persistent negativity,” the MEA continued.
A day earlier, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry had summoned the Indian acting high commissioner and lodged its strong protest over Hasina’s “false and fabricated comments and statements”.
“… The ministry conveyed the deep concern, disappointment and serious reservation of the government of Bangladesh, as such statements are hurting the sentiments of the people in Bangladesh,” Dhaka said, adding that it considered Hasina’s address an example of a “hostile act towards Bangladesh”.
Dhaka asked New Delhi to take steps to prevent Hasina from publicly making “false, fabricated and incendiary statements” while in India, to where she fled a bloody student-led uprising in August.
On Wednesday night, protesters took hammers and shovels to Rahman’s residence before Hasina’s speech began and later set it on fire, even as security personnel were present in the vicinity from the start, the Star had reported.
A bulldozer also arrived at the scene a little before midnight.
Among the attacks that followed on Awami League leaders was one on the home of a former president.
Yunus on Friday called on citizens to “immediately restore complete law and order and to ensure there will be no further attacks on properties” associated with Hasina’s family or with leaders of the “fascist” Awami League.
The MEA had called Rahman a “symbol of the heroic resistance” Bangladesh’s people displayed during independence from Pakistan and said the damaging of his residence “should be strongly condemned”.
Hasina for her part suggested in her address to her supporters that the house could be rebuilt and said her country was ceding space to “terrorists and militants”, The Hindu quoted her as saying.
Terming Yunus’s government “unconstitutional” and accusing him of attempting to kill her, Hasina also said she believed she had survived numerous assassination attempts “because I have to complete some special assignment in the coming days”, the newspaper reported.
Yunus’s government has sought Hasina’s extradition to Bangladesh, where the Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal has issued warrants for her arrest on allegations of human rights violations during the July-August crackdown on the student-led uprising.
Her presence in India has added another layer of friction to relations between the two countries, as it is seen in Bangladesh as indicative of New Delhi’s uncritical support for the Awami League government over its decade-and-a-half rule led by Hasina.
The interim adviser has previously said that Hasina ought to remain “quiet” while in India.
