Flags of India and Bangladesh.
Credit: iStock Photo
New Delhi: After the interim government in Dhaka sought to cash in on the recent violence in West Bengal in India to counter criticism over the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, New Delhi on Friday hit back, asking Muhammad Yunus’s regime to focus on protecting the rights of the minority communities in its own territory.
New Delhi asked the interim government in Dhaka to stop “indulging in virtue signalling”.
“We reject the remarks made by the Bangladesh side with regard to the incidents in West Bengal,” Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi.
He was reacting to the statement by Yunus’s press secretary, Shafiqul Alam, condemning “the attacks on the Muslims (in Murshidabad in West Bengal) causing loss of lives and properties”.
“This is a barely disguised and disingenuous attempt to draw a parallel with India's concerns over the ongoing persecution of minorities in Bangladesh, where the criminal perpetrators of such acts continue to roam free,” said Jaiswal.
Three people were killed, and several others, including cops, were injured, as the protest against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, turned violent in Murshidabad and some other places in West Bengal in India on April 11 and 12.
The protesters clashed with the police personnel, burnt government vehicles and ransacked government offices. The protests also led to communal clashes, and houses and shops were set ablaze at Suti, Samserganj, Dhulian and Jangipur in Murshidabad, forcing hundreds of people to flee and take refuge in Malda.
The normalcy started returning to Murshidabad on April 13, with paramilitary forces joining police in maintaining law and order.
The police have so far arrested 274 persons for being involved in violent protests and arson.
Citing media reports quoting ‘sources’ in the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Union Government, Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, indicated that the people who crossed over from Bangladesh to India had triggered violence during protests against the new law in the state.
Alam objected to “India’s attempt to associate Bangladesh with communal violence in Murshidabad in West Bengal”.
“Instead of making unwarranted comments and indulging in virtue signalling, Bangladesh would do better to focus on protecting the rights of its own minorities,” the spokesperson of the MEA of the Government of India said in New Delhi.
Yunus had taken over as the chief advisor of the interim government of Dhaka after Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government had collapsed on August 5, 2024, in the wake of a mass protest against the police crackdown on the students and youths who had been agitating against reservation in government recruitment in Bangladesh. A military aircraft had flown Sheikh Hasina to an Indian Air Force base near New Delhi.
India’s protest against the persecution of Hindus and other minority communities in Bangladesh after the change of government in the neighbouring nation, India’s silence over the request by the interim government of Bangladesh for extradition of Sheikh Hasina or its protest against her virtual addresses delivered from India on recent developments in Bangladesh, including the vandalism and demolition of the historic residence of her father and the founder of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, emerged as irritants in the bilateral relations.
Yunus’s interim government on December 10 last year stated in Dhaka that 70 people had been arrested in 88 cases related to attacks against minorities in Bangladesh. Subsequent police investigations in January 2025 had verified 1254 incidents of attacks against the minority communities in Bangladesh. The Government of India had informed the nation’s Parliament early this month that over 2400 minority-related incidents had been reported from August 5 last year till March 23 this year.