BJP's Suvendu Adhikari meets Bangladesh Deputy High Commission officials, demands end to atrocities on minorities

Kolkata: Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Friday met senior officials of the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission here as part of a five-member delegation, and demanded an end to alleged atrocities on minorities in the neighbouring country.

The BJP leader also launched a sharp attack on the Mamata Banerjee-led state government over police action on protesters who demonstrated before the deputy high commission earlier this week.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Adhikari claimed that the Deputy High Commission officials had avoided meeting him since Monday and agreed to the interaction only after he warned of staging a large protest outside the office.

Minorities, especially Hindus, have been affected by a series of incidents against them in Bangladesh since the interim government assumed power in August last year after the ouster of then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Recently, a 25-year-old Hindu worker, Dipu Chandra Das, was lynched by a mob in Mymensingh over an alleged anti-Islam post on Facebook.

Adhikari said he raised the case of Das with the Bangladeshi diplomats, questioning the basis of the charges against him.

Das was assaulted after being taken out of police custody, and was falsely accused of writing that post as he owned a basic mobile phone, the BJP leader claimed.

Adhikari also said he sought information on compensation provided to the victim's family.

The leader of the opposition said he raised the issue of continued detention of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das in the neighbouring country, and claimed he had remained in jail without justification.

Chinmoy Krishna Das, a spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was arrested in December last year at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport while travelling to Chattogram for a rally.

Adhikari alleged that previous governments in Bangladesh had allowed Rohingya Muslims to enter that country, but Hindus were being targeted. He asked why Hindus were being beaten up and their houses burnt.

Referring to the December 23 police lathi charge on protesters before the high commission in the city's Beckbagan area, Adhikari claimed that more than 10 people were injured in the police action, including a monk.

"Mamata Banerjee has turned the Bengal police into her personal force. It is a matter of shame," he alleged, describing her government as "anti-Hindu".

Claiming that around 1,000 protesters, including several sadhus, were present on Friday with him, he said the agitation would escalate in the coming days.

"After the Gangasagar mela (next month), five lakh sadhus will come here. We will see then how much power the Kolkata Police has," he said.

Earlier in the day, the members of a Hindu organisation marched to the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission and submitted a deputation. PTI BSM NN