Dhaka has conveyed to New Delhi that deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina after fleeing to India was making political statements frequently allegedly by using cellphone and internet facilities from there and Bangladesh was not taking it well.
鈥楢fter fleeing the country to India on August 5, the ousted prime minister has been staying in India and issuing political statements from there. We have conveyed our government鈥檚 discontent over the issue to the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka on several occasions,鈥� foreign ministry鈥檚 public diplomacy wing director general Toufique Hasan said.
He said that Sheikh Hasina should have been stopped from making such political statements being published in the media for maintaining a relation of mutual respect between two neighbouring countries.
Responding to a question at the weekly briefing at the ministry, he said that Bangladesh had already expressed strong discontent over deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 frequent political statements while staying in India and urged the Indian government to prevent her from such activities in the perspective of historic relation between the two countries.
Asked whether there was any reply from the Indian side, the foreign ministry spokesperson said that Dhaka did not get any formal reply from New Delhi on the matter.聽
The Indian high commission, however, assured them that they would look into the issue, he added.
Asked about the process of extradition of Sheikh Hasina from India since she was now facing an arrest warrant from the International Crimes Tribunal on allegations of committing crimes against humanity during the July-August mass uprising, Hasan said that the foreign ministry had not yet received any request from the relevant ministry.
鈥榃e would take necessary steps if we receive any directive from the ministry concerned to repatriate her,鈥� he added.
On the issue of issuance of Indian visas for Bangladeshis, Hasan said that the government had communicated with the Indian authorities on the matter, but they had said that they halted processing of visas of some categories due to shortage of manpower.
He, however, said that the foreign ministry was working to ensure that Bangladeshi students, who now need to travel to India to obtain third-country visas, could acquire their visas from alternative countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan.
