The situation in Bangladesh is still evolving and the Indian government is in touch with Indian citizens in the neighbouring country, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday.

Jaishankar was speaking in Parliament a day after Sheikh Hasina resigned as Bangladesh’s prime minister and fled to India amid widespread anti-government protests.

Hasina left the country along with her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, after the student-led protests against a controversial quota scheme for government jobs, which started in July, evolved into a broader agitation against her administration.

On Monday, Bangladeshi Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman said that an interim government will be formed in the country.

However, soon after, media reports said that Hindu homes and business establishments were attacked by mobs in at least 27 districts of Bangladesh. Hindu houses and businesses were also looted in some places, according to The Daily Star.

Speaking about the situation in the neighbouring country, Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that concern about the recent “violence and instability there is shared across the political spectrum”.

He also said that Hasina requested approval to come “for the moment” to India at a very short notice on Monday.

“We simultaneously received a request for flight clearance from Bangladesh authorities,” said the minister. “She arrived yesterday evening in Delhi.”

He said that Delhi has been in “regular touch with the authorities” in Dhaka.

Jaishankar further said that there are an estimated 19,000 Indian citizens in Bangladesh. Of this, nearly 9,000 are students. “The bulk of the students, however, have already returned to India in the month of July [facilitated by] the High Commission,” he said.

Jaishankar said that Delhi was monitoring the situation “with regard to the status of minorities” in Bangladesh.

“There are reports of initiative by various groups and organisations to ensure their well-being,” he said. “We welcome that but will naturally remain deeply concerned till law and order is visibly restored.”

The minister stated that the Indian government expects that Bangladesh “will provide the required security protection” to the Indian diplomatic missions in the country, including the Assistant High Commissions in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet.

India’s border guarding forces have been instructed to be “exceptionally alert” in view of the situation in the neighbouring nation, he added.

Jaishankar said that there had been “considerable tensions, deep divides and growing polarisation” in Bangladesh politics since the general elections in January. “This underlying foundation aggravated a student agitation” in June and July, he said.

The minister said that throughout this period, Delhi “repeatedly counselled restraint and urged that the situation be defused through dialogue”. “Similar urgings were made to various political forces with whom we were in touch,” he added.

Also read: Bangladesh student-led protests morph into a mass uprising to unseat an ‘autocratic government’

Earlier in the day, Jaishankar briefed an all-party meeting about the developments in Bangladesh. “Appreciate the unanimous support and understanding that was extended,” he said in a social media post.

At least 135 persons died in Bangladesh on Monday in mob violence, police firings and arson, before and after Hasina resigned. On Sunday, at least 93 persons were killed and over 1,000 injured in different parts of the country, reported The Daily Star.

In July, over 200 persons were killed amid protests that erupted after a High Court ruling in June reinstated the 30% quota in government jobs for family members of freedom fighters of the 1971 Bangladeshi Liberation War.

The reservation system, which was abolished in 2018 following widespread protests, rekindled anger among young job seekers and students who fear that they would be deprived of opportunities because of the quota.

On July 21, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court scaled back, but did not abolish, most of the quotas in government jobs.

The protestors, however, returned to the streets last week demanding justice for those killed and injured and calling for Hasina to resign.

Also read: ‘Absolute cinema’: Images of protestors storming Bangladesh PM’s house flood social media