Citizenship Act: Dhaka protests against attack on diplomat’s convoy in Guwahati, seeks more security
Bangladesh’s acting Foreign Secretary Kamrul Ahsan summoned Indian High Commissioner Riva Ganguly Das after the incident in Guwahati on Thursday.
Bangladesh on Thursday summoned Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Riva Ganguly Das to lodge a protest against the attack on the convoy of its assistant high commissioner in Guwahati, and told India to increase the security of the Guwahati mission, NDTV reported.
In a statement, the foreign ministry said Das met acting Foreign Secretary Kamrul Ahsan on Thursday evening. Ahsan also protested against the “vandalisation of the signposts [of the Bangladesh Chancery in Guwahati]”. However, the ministry said it was considering the attack a “one-off” incident.
The diplomat, Shah Mohammad Tanvir Mansur, was returning home from the airport when his convoy was attacked, reported The Hindu. According to reports in Bangladesh media, Das assured Ahsan that steps had been taken to ensure the mission’s safety.
The attack came as protests against the amended Citizenship Act escalated in the North East, especially Assam, where two protestors were killed. The law will grant citizenship to persecuted non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, provided they have resided in India for six years. The cut-off date is December 31, 2014. The widespread fear in the North East is that populations defined as indigenous to the region will be culturally and physically overrun by migrants as a result of this law’s provisions.
Earlier on Thursday, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen cancelled their scheduled visits to India. While Khan was scheduled to make a personal visit to Meghalaya’s capital Shillong on Friday, Momen cancelled his three-day official tour that was scheduled to begin on Thursday, citing other commitments.
On Wednesday, Momen had said the proposed amendments could weaken India’s character as a secular nation. “India is historically a tolerant country which believes in secularism [but] their historic position will be weakened if they deviate from that,” he added.