India envoy in Bangladesh to smooth months of tensions

DHAKA: India's top career diplomat visited Bangladesh on Monday to address tensions between the two neighbours following the August overthrow of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina in a student-led revolution.

Hasina's iron-fisted rule, strongly backed by India, saw the 77-year-old take refuge in New Delhi after her ouster, despite Bangladesh announcing it would seek her extradition.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, leader of an interim government tasked with implementing democratic reforms, condemned acts of 'Indian aggression' that he alleged were intended to destabilise his administration.

Vikram Misra, the secretary of India's foreign ministry, arrived in Dhaka on Monday for the first in-person meeting between top officials of both countries since Hasina's ouster.

"It needs to be recognised that there has been a qualitative shift in the relationship between the two countries," Bangladesh's de facto foreign minister Touhid Hossain said on Sunday, ahead of Misra's visit. "Acknowledging this reality, the relationship must be carried forward."

Misra was scheduled to meet with Touhid and Yunus while in Dhaka.

Yunus, 84, faced numerous criminal proceedings during Hasina's regime that her critics say were concocted to sideline one of her most high-profile potential rivals. He has been a vocal critic of India for backing Hasina's rule despite the mounting rights abuses seen over her 15-year tenure.

India, for its part, has accused Muslim-majority Bangladesh of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu community from reprisal attacks after Hasina's toppling.

The arrest of a prominent Hindu priest in Bangladesh on sedition charges last month further added to tensions, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing supporters urging his government to take a more hardline stance on Dhaka.

Yunus's administration has repeatedly acknowledged and condemned attacks on Hindus, but insists that in many cases they were motivated by politics rather than religion. Yunus has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence and running a 'propaganda campaign' against his government.

Numerous anti-India street demonstrations have been staged in Bangladesh since Hasina's ouster. On Sunday, hundreds of activists from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) marched to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka but dispersed peacefully after their route was blocked by police. They were protesting against the attempted storming of a Bangladeshi consulate in India by Hindu activists some days earlier, which prompted Dhaka to lodge a formal protest and recall two of its diplomats.

By RSS/AFP