India working to engage Bangladesh on minority attacks: EAM Jaishankar
In the first consultative committee meeting of 2025, the Minister met a panel of MPs and discussed about relations of with the neighbouring countries;
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar along with MoS Pabitra Margherita and other MPs following the first Consultative Committee Meeting of 2025 discussing on issues related to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Maldives, & Sri Lanka (Photo: @DrSJaishankar/ X)
Guwahati, March 22: The Centre is working on multiple mechanisms to draw Bangladesh’s attention to the atrocities against minorities in the neighbouring country, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar informed after the first Consultative Committee meeting of 2025 with a panel of Members of Parliament (MPs) on Saturday.
The meeting was attended by Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita, along with other MPs.
According to a national newswire, the EAM also pointed out to the MPs that, given the absence of a formal government in Bangladesh, holding official discussions on the matter remains challenging.
Taking to a microblogging site, Jaishankar shared, “Concluded the first Consultative Committee Meeting of 2025 for External Affairs. A useful discussion on India’s relationship with Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.”
India has been raising concerns over the rising violence against Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh for several months.
In December 2024, MoS for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh had shared in the Lok Sabha that 2,200 cases of atrocities were reported in the country.
On February 16, Jaishankar met Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain on the sidelines of the eighth edition of the Indian Ocean Conference in Muscat. Their discussions reportedly focused on bilateral relations amid prevailing tensions between the two countries.
The Bangladesh foreign ministry later issued a statement noting that Hossain and Jaishankar discussed “various bilateral issues of mutual concern and interest,” adding, “Both sides recognised the challenges in bilateral relations and emphasised the need for collaborative efforts to address them.
This meeting marked the first high-level interaction between the two nations since Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to Dhaka in December 2024.
Notably, a day after Foreign Secretary Misri’s visit to Dhaka in early December, Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Muhammad Yunus, the chief adviser to Bangladesh’s interim government, reportedly admitted that 88 cases of communal violence against minorities, primarily Hindus, were registered between August 5 and October 22.
