'Unavoidable circumstances': Bangladesh suspends visa services in New Delhi; move follows Dhaka's 'scale back' remark

NEW DELHI: Bangladesh on Monday suspended all consular and visa services at its high commission in New Delhi, a day after its foreign affairs adviser said Dhaka was considering “scaling back” its presence there, citing a protest held outside the mission over the lynching of a Hindu man in Bangladesh.

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“Due to unavoidable circumstances, all consular and visa services at the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi have been temporarily suspended until further notice. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted,” a notice pasted outside the mission said.



The move comes days after India temporarily shut its visa application centre in Chattogram until further notice, following protest by scores of demonstrators outside the Assistant High Commission of India in the port city, the neighbouring country’s second-largest.




Though New Delhi–Dhaka ties have been tense since the August 2024 ouster of Bangladesh’s then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a student-led movement, the latest tensions were triggered by the fatal shooting of youth politician Sharif Osman Hadi, with a section of Bangladesh’s political class blaming India.

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Hasina, meanwhile, has been living in New Delhi since being forced to resign and flee.

In a press release on Sunday, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry described the protest outside its high commission the previous day as “regrettable,” adding that the incident cannot be dismissed as “misleading propaganda”—a phrase used by the Ministry of External Affairs in a statement rejecting the way Bangladeshi media portrayed the demonstration.



Visa centre in West Bengal's Siliguri 'vandalised': Bangladesh media

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s Prothom Alo reported that the country’s visa centre in Siliguri, West Bengal, was “vandalised” during a protest over the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das, the Hindu man who was attacked by a mob accusing him of blasphemy.

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According to the report, a five-member delegation from the roughly 300 demonstrators entered the visa office and told the staff to keep it closed as a “form of protest.”

A decision on reopening the facility will be made after the situation is "closely monitored."