Hours after being summoned, Indian envoy says ties with Bangladesh 'not transient'

Dhaka: Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma on Sunday said New Delhi's relations with Dhaka are “not transient” but "everlasting", hours after Bangladesh's foreign office summoned him to express its "serious concern" over "incendiary statements" made by deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently in India.

Hasina, 78, fled to India in August last year after her Awami League government was toppled in a violent student-led street protest and continues to stay there.

She was sentenced to death by a special tribunal last month after being convicted on charges of crimes against humanity. Bangladesh has been demanding her extradition.

"The bonds we share with Bangladesh are not transient; they are everlasting. A relationship forged in blood and sacrifice cannot be weakened,” the envoy said, joining an event hosted by academic and cultural group Itihash O Oitijjo Parishad.

Verma said India stood with the people of Bangladesh during its 1971 Liberation War and would continue to support them in realising the vision for a “democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive and inclusive nation”.

The discussion was staged to mark the 54th anniversary of Victory Day on December 16, which marks the country’s liberation from Pakistan in 1971.

The high commissioner said Bangladesh and India have come a long way since 1971, and both nations are now fast-growing economies.

“Our societies and economies are closely linked, so closely that we are interdependent on each other,” he said.

Verma said that during the Liberation War, India stood with its "brothers and sisters in Bangladesh, with immense pride, supporting them at every step in their cause for truth, justice, dignity and freedom of Bangladesh".

"And in doing so, we also lost our own soldiers in thousands. Countless more were left wounded...(Now) it is a time to cherish the values that underpinned that freedom struggle," he said.

The envoy said after 54 years of Bangladesh’s independence, “it is as important as ever that today's youth and children – the future custodians of this nation – learn and carry forward this indelible history”.

Bangladesh’s foreign office earlier in the afternoon issued a statement announcing Verma’s summons to reiterate the calls by the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government for Hasina’s “expeditious extradition” alongside former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to face death sentences handed down by the special tribunal last month.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Indian High Commissioner today to convey the Government of Bangladesh’s serious concern to the Government of India for allowing fugitive Sheikh Hasina to continue to make incendiary statements calling upon her supporters to engage in terrorist activities in Bangladesh, aiming to thwart the upcoming parliamentary elections,” a foreign office statement said.

The envoy’s attention was drawn as well to “anti-Bangladesh activities” by other fugitive Awami League members staying in India, the statement said, claiming that they were “planning, organising and helping to carry out terrorist activities inside Bangladesh" to disrupt the upcoming elections.

“The Indian government was called upon to expeditiously act to end the criminal actions by these fascist terrorists and extradite them to Bangladesh as soon as possible,” it said.

Bangladesh will hold general elections on February 12. The Awami League has rejected the election schedule and demanded a neutral caretaker government to hold “free and participatory” elections.