Days before India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to Dhaka next week, Bangladesh authorities summoned the heads of the country’s deputy high commission office in Kolkata and assistant high commission in Agartala for “urgent diplomatic” meeting on the emerging situation.
Sources in the offices of the two missions in Agartala and Kolkata said Sikder Mohammad Ashrafur Rahman, acting deputy high commissioner in Kolkata, arrived Dhaka on Thursday evening and Arif Mohammad, assistant high commissioner in Agartala mission, is scheduled to reach Dhaka on Saturday.
Ashrafur, who is also Bangladesh’s political affairs minister station in Kolkata, will be part of the delegation during the government’s meeting with Misri.
Elaborating on the reason behind urgent summoning of the two envoys, a source in the deputy high commission in Kolkata said, “They will brief the Bangladesh government’s foreign affairs ministry about the political situation in Bengal and Tripura in the backdrop of the present ongoing turmoil in India’s eastern neighbourig country.”
Sources in the Indian intelligence wings said the decision to summon two Bangladeshi diplomats was part of pressure “build up” tactics adopted by the neighbouring country.
“The Agartala-based envoy will describe the incident of breach in the assistant high commissioner’s office premises three days ago. The acting deputy high commissioner of Kolkata will brief the demonstration staged in front of his office by the BJP over 10 days ago. Bangladesh government will try to portray India’s negative images by citing the two incidents in the meeting with Misri. We expect, they will also mention the statements made by political parties in West Bengal,” said an official in Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
Two days ago, Pranay Verma, the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, was summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Bangladesh. Acting foreign secretary Riaz Hamidullah of the Bangladesh’s interim government requested the Indian envoy to ask Indian government to intervene to refrain politicians in West Bengal from making comments on the “internal issues” of the neighbouring country.
This week, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, while addressing the Assembly, urged the Indian government to request the United Nations for deployment of peacekeeping forces in Bangladesh. On the same day, BJP leader Subhendu Adhikari threatened to impose an export embargo on Bangladesh while leading a demonstration and addressing a gathering at Petrapole border.
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