India must stop issuing visas to Bangladeshis, says West Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari

Kolkata: India must not issue visas to the citizens of Bangladesh as long as the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus in the neighbouring country would not release the incarcerated Hindu monk, Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal said on Wednesday.

The BJP in West Bengal also threatened to launch a blockade at the Petrapole-Benapole border between India and Bangladesh soon.

A day after New Delhi and Dhaka had a war of words over the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das at Chittagong in Bangladesh, Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the legislative assembly of West Bengal, said that the Government of India should stop issuing visas to the citizens of the neighbouring country.

“You know how Hindus are tortured there (Bangladesh). This kind of torture cannot go on. Prabhu Chinmoy Krishna Das has not done anything wrong. We want his immediate release. He has been slapped with false cases. This cannot be allowed. Enough is enough,” Adhikari said after leading some of the BJP MLAs to march to the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh in Kolkata.

He and other BJP MLAs submitted a memorandum to the officials of the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh, demanding the immediate release of Chinmoy Krishna Das from police custody in the neighbouring country.

“Stop issuing visas to Bangladeshis completely. Also, stop the issuance of permits for export and import. We will wait for a day and launch a blockade at the India-Bangladesh border at Petrapole in North 24 Parganas district in case the incidents of alleged tortures are not stopped,” he told journalists after visiting the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh in Kolkata.

Das emerged as one of the frontline leaders of the protests by the Hindus of Bangladesh against religious persecution over the past few months following the collapse of the erstwhile Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina on August 5 this year. The monk was arrested by Bangladesh Police soon after he arrived in Chittagong from Dhaka on Monday. He was accused of sedition and denied bail by a court in Chittagong on Tuesday.

The denial of bail to the monk intensified the protest by the Hindus in Chittagong. Police resorted to firing teargas shells and baton-charge to disperse the mob of protesters. An advocate, Saiful Islam Halif, was wounded during the clash and later succumbed to injuries.

As police fired teargas shells and baton-charged the Hindus protesting the arrest of an ISKCON priest at Chittagong in Bangladesh, New Delhi on Tuesday expressed its “deep concern” and called upon the interim government in Dhaka to protect the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of the country’s minority communities.

“India and Bangladesh have a very good relationship. But there are attempts to develop an anti-India sentiment there by the current regime which was never there earlier,” said Adhikari, urging Bangladeshis to go to Pakistan for treatment instead of choosing the healthcare facilities

"Don't come here for treatment. Go to Karachi or Lahore," Adhikari said.