Protests erupt in Bangladesh over attack on its Agartala mission

Thousands of people took to the streets in Dhaka and elsewhere Monday night protesting against the attack on the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agartala of India’s Tripura state.

The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement brought out a protest procession on the Dhaka University campus condemning the incident.

Led by Hasnat Abdullah, a convener of the platform, the procession started from the altar of the Anti-terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture. Demonstrators chanted various slogans, including “Down with Indian aggression.”

Hasnat Abdullah announced the demonstration programme on his verified Facebook page.

Earlier, the Bangladesh Chhatra Odhikar Parishad held a rally at the same spot where President Bin Yamin Mollah said India must apologise formally to Bangladesh over the attack on its mission in Agartala.

Through the incident, the Indian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has created a vulgar history, he said.

Meanwhile, leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Juba Odhikar Parishad marched in a procession in the capital to register its protest.

At Jahangirnagar University, around 100 students assembled in the Bot Tola area around 9pm and brought out a torch procession, parading different streets on the campus.

In Chattogram, the district unit Anti-Discrimination Student Movement held a rally in the port city, protesting against the attack on the diplomatic mission.

At the event, speakers urged all to thwart any conspiracy by maintaining communal harmony among people of all religions.

Besides, protests were held in Cumilla, Khulna and other parts of the country.

Members of the Hindu Sangharsh Samity, a right-wing organisation, allegedly attacked the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agartala on Monday.

They also burned the national flag of Bangladesh in front of the office while staging demonstrations.

The attack was made following a rally held protesting against what the demonstrators said oppression of Bangladeshi Hindus and the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, a former leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

Meanwhile, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) regretted the attack on the Assistant High Commission in Agartala.

In a media statement, the MEA said, “The incident earlier today [Monday] of the breach of premises at the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agartala is deeply regrettable. Diplomatic and consular properties should not be targeted under any circumstances.”

The Indian government is taking action to step up security arrangements for the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi and their Deputy/Assistant High Commissions in the country, it added.

On the other hand, the government of Bangladesh said it “deeply resents” the “violent demonstration and attack” by a large group of protesters of the Hindu Sangharsh Samity on the premises of the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agartala.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement, underlined that this “heinous attack” on a diplomatic mission of Bangladesh and desecration of the national flag of Bangladesh comes in a pattern, further to a similar violent demonstration in Kolkata on 28 November.

“This particular act in Agartala stands in violation of the inviolability of diplomatic missions, as the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, asks for,” the ministry said.