The Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi and the country’s mission in Agartala on Monday announced a temporary suspension of visa and consular services against the backdrop of protests outside these offices.
A notice to this effect was put up outside the high commission premises in the Diplomatic Enclave in Delhi and the assistant high commission’s office in Agartala.
“Due to unavoidable circumstances, all consular and visa services from the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi are temporarily suspended until further notice,” the notice outside the office in the national capital said.
The same notice was seen outside the mission in Tripura, though no such notice was spotted on the Bangladesh deputy high commission premises in Calcutta.
In Siliguri, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and some other outfits on Monday demonstrated in front of the office of a private company at the International Market near Panitanki More, which is authorised by the Bangladesh government to issue visas.
The demonstrators, who tore up some promotional banners and posters put up by the company, were dispersed by police. The office was closed during the demonstration.
India had beefed up security outside the Bangladesh high commission in the capital last week in anticipation of possible counter-protests to oppose the agitations that have been taking place outside the Indian mission and posts across Bangladesh and the lynching of a Hindu youth in Mymensingh.
The VHP and the Bajrang Dal have jointly called for a protest outside the Bangladesh mission in Delhi on Tuesday morning.
Leader shot at
On Monday, unidentified gunmen shot in the head Motaleb Shikder, a second leader of Bangladesh’s violent student-led 2024 uprising.
The attack took place in southwestern Khulna city, days after the killing of prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi in a similar fashion, triggering massive protests and violence.
“The Khulna division head of the NCP (National Citizen Party) and the central coordinator of the party’s workers’ front, Motaleb Shikder, was shot a few minutes ago,” NCP joint principal coordinator Mahmuda Mitu said in a Facebook post.
Mitu, a doctor, said Shikder was rushed to Khulna Medical College Hospital in critical condition.
The Kaler Kantha newspaper, quoting hospital sources, said Shikder was shot on the left side of his head, and he was bleeding profusely when he was brought to the facility.
The attack came days after Hadi, a key leader of the student-led protests last year that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government, was shot in the head on December 12 by masked gunmen at an election campaign in central Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area.
The 32-year-old Inqilab Mancha spokesperson died while undergoing treatment in Singapore on Thursday. Hadi was a candidate for the scheduled February 12 general election.
The interim government of Muhammad Yunus staged a nationwide mourning for Hadi’s death on Saturday and said no stone would be left unturned to track down his killers as violence erupted in Dhaka and other major cities afresh over the assassination.
The police said they were yet to identify Shikder’s attackers or the motive. The shooting took place in Khulna city’s Majid Sarani area. The police said they launched an “immediate manhunt”.
Local police station chief Animesh Mondal told reporters that the Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH) authorities had shifted Shikder to its City Imaging Centre to pinpoint the state of his injury.
Hasina: Lawless
In an email interview with ANI, Hasina said Hadi’s killing only showed the “lawlessness” in Bangladesh under Yunus after she was deposed.
Hasina said: “This tragic killing reflects the lawlessness that uprooted my government and has multiplied under Yunus. Violence has become the norm while the interim government either denies it or is powerless to stop it.”
“Such incidents destabilise Bangladesh internally but also our relationships with neighbours who are watching with justified alarm. India sees the chaos, the persecution of minorities, and the erosion of everything we built together. When you cannot maintain basic order within your borders, your credibility on the international stage collapses. This is the reality of Yunus’s Bangladesh,” she added.