India hopes Bangladesh will take initiative for protection of minorities

Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of India Randhir Jaiswal has said that India hopes the government will take initiative to stop the ‘oppression’ on minorities in Bangladesh. He said this on Wednesday.

He made this comment when asked about the allegation of continued torture on minorities in a statement of the Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council of Bangladesh. It was said in that statement that 141 incidents of torture on minorities have taken place in the past three months. Among these there are also incidents of murder. The organisation alleged that no one has been arrested in these incidents.

At the regular briefing of the Ministry of External Affairs of India, a journalist raised these allegations and wanted to know the attitude of the Indian government in this regard.

In reply, Randhir Jaiswal did not make any detailed comment on the past or present situation. He also did not blame the Bangladesh government. He said, “Our hope is that the Bangladesh authorities will take initiative to take appropriate measures in this regard.”

At the briefing, another question was asked regarding Bangladesh about the non-participation of Home Minister of Bangladesh Salahuddin Ahmed in the BIMSTEC Home Ministers’ level conference. Instead of him, the Home Secretary of Bangladesh joined the conference.

The questioner mentioned that such an incident has taken place two consecutive times. Although BIMSTEC Chairman Prime Minister Tarique Rahman was invited to the outreach session of the BRICS conference, he did not participate. This time also the Home Minister of Bangladesh did not join the BIMSTEC Home Ministers’ level conference.

Jaiswal did not give a direct answer to this question either. He said that Home Minister of India Amit Shah inaugurated the conference. After the end of the conference, the Delhi Declaration has been adopted. It has spoken about the cooperation of the member countries in tackling issues like terrorism, drugs and money laundering.

Jaiswal further said that Bangladesh has also participated in that conference. India hopes that security cooperation among all the member countries of BIMSTEC will be further strengthened.