India’s top career diplomat was in Bangladesh on Monday to defuse tensions between the two neighbours arising from the August overthrow of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina in a student-led revolution.
Hasina’s iron-fisted rule was strongly backed by India and the 77-year-old remains in New Delhi where she took refuge 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, has condemned acts of “Indian aggression” that he alleged were intended to destabilise his administration.
Vikram Misri, 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.
Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who met Misri on Monday, has said the reports were exaggerated. Yunus “asked India to help clear the ‘clouds’ that have cast a shadow over the relationship between the two neighbours in recent times,” according to a statement from his office.
“India desires a positive, constructive, and mutually beneficial relationship with Bangladesh,” Misri was quoted as saying in a transcript published by the Indian foreign ministry after the meeting. “There is no reason why this mutually beneficial cooperation should not continue to deliver in the interest of both our peoples.”
Misri said he discussed “some regrettable incidents of attacks on cultural, religious, and diplomatic properties”, adding that India expected a constructive approach on these issues from Bangladesh. He also met his Bangladeshi counterpart, Mohammad Jashim Uddin.
Bangladesh has denied reports of attacks, asked India to stop sheltering Hasina and demanded her extradition.
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.
Yunus’s administration has repeatedly acknowledged and condemned attacks on Hindus, but also 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. Adding to potential tensions between the two neighbours is Hasina’s decision to re-emerge from her exile in New Delhi to address supporters abroad by videolink.
On Sunday she spoke to several hundred of members of her Awami League party based in London, accusing Yunus’ government of deliberately targeting minorities. Her supporters at the event insisted that Hasina remained the lawful head of Bangladesh despite the popular uprising that forced her to flee to India.