The Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Tripura’s Agartala will reopen visa and consular services from Wednesday, reported PTI.

The services were suspended on December 2 after protestors from a group called the Hindu Sangharsh Samiti breached the security arrangements at the diplomatic mission, pulled down Bangladesh’s national flag and damaged property.

Seven persons were arrested for the vandalism, while three police officials were suspended for neglecting their duties.

“All visa and consular services at the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agartala will resume on February 5 2025,” read a notice issued by Md Al Amin, first secretary of the Bangladesh Assistant High Commissioner's office.

Diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Dhaka have been strained since former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India on August 5 amid widespread, student-led protests against her Awami League government. She had been the prime minister of Bangladesh for 16 years.

Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government on August 8.

After the diplomatic mission was vandalised, Bangladesh summoned the Indian envoy in Dhaka, High Commissioner Pranay Verma, to register its concerns.

Verma said after the meeting that India and Bangladesh have a multi-faceted relationship that cannot be reduced to one agenda.

“A number of positive developments in the relationship in the last few months, like trade, power transmission, supply of essential commodities have taken place,” he said. “We are interested in working with the Government of Bangladesh to fulfil our shared aspirations for peace, security and development.”

The Hindu Sangharsh Samiti was protesting the arrest of Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das in the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong on November 25. The monk was arrested on sedition charges after he allegedly insulted Bangladesh’s national flag during a rally in Chittagong on October 25.

Das is the spokesperson of the Sammilito Sanatani Jagaron Jote, an organisation that advocates for the rights of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh. He was formerly associated with the West Bengal-based International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON.