NEW DELHI: Foreign secretary Vikram Misri will be visiting Bangladesh on December 9 to hold meeting with his counterpart, said ministry of external affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
Misri will hold several other meetings during his visit, which comes amid tension between the two countries over ongoing violence against Hindu and minority communities.
The unabated atrocities against minorities in Bangladesh began after Sheikh Hasina was ousted as the PM and forced to flee nation on August 5.
Following Hasina’s departure to India to seek shelter, Muhammad Yunus-led interim government has been handling the affairs of Dhaka.
“Foreign Secretary is scheduled to visit Bangladesh on the 9th of December and he will meet his counterpart and there will be several other meetings during the visit. Foreign Office consultations led by the Foreign Secretary is a structured engagement between India and Bangladesh. We look forward to this meeting,” Jaiswal said in a press briefing on Friday.
Earlier, Bangladesh “urgently” recalled the mission heads of Agartala and Kolkata high commissions to Dhaka, a move indicating of the deepening tension between the Yunus government and New Delhi.
The acting deputy high commissioner of Bangladesh in Kolkata, Shikdar Md Ashrafur Rahman, and the assistant high commissioner in Tripura, Arifur Rahman, were instructed to return to Dhaka on an urgent basis last Tuesday, reported Prothom Alo citing sources.
The political instability in Bangladesh has coincided with a series of mob attacks, intensifying concerns for the safety of the Hindu minority community.
The tension rose further after the arrest of prominent Iskcon priest Chinmoy Krishna Das, a vocal advocate for minority rights. Das was detained at Dhaka airport in October on charges of allegedly disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag during a rally. The specifics of the allegations remain vague, and Das has been denied bail.
In response to the atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh, demonstrators allegedly broke into the Bangladesh assistant high commission in Agartala.
The high commission breach took place after an Agartala-Kolkata bus travelling via Dhaka on Saturday reportedly faced an attack in the Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh.