Bangladesh Deputy Foreign Minister Shahriar Alam on Saturday cancelled a scheduled visit to New Delhi to attend the Ministry of External Affairs’ annual Raisina Dialogue Conference from January 14 to 16, PTI reported. The Bangladesh Foreign Ministry rejected “misleading” reports that Alam’s visit was cancelled because of tensions between New Delhi and Dhaka over the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens exercise.

The ministry said the decision has been conveyed to the MEA’s organising partner thinktank, Observer Research Foundation, that he would be travelling to the United Arab Emirates to accompany Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on a visit there.

“The ministry would like to convey that State Minister Mohammad Shahriar Alam was invited as a speaker in the Raisina Dialogue which coincides with his visit to UAE to accompany the Prime Minister of Bangladesh,” a statement said. “As such State Minister Alam could not avail the participation.”

The statement added that the inability of Alam’s participation in the event had “no other connection”.

Alam’s decision to not visit India came after Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momencancelled his three-day India visit on December 12 and a day later his Cabinet colleague, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan cancelled a scheduled personal visit to Meghalaya’s capital Shillong. Momen had also said the citizenship law and the citizens’ register were India’s “internal issues” but expressed concern that any uncertainty in India was likely to affect its neighbouring countries.

The Citizenship Amendment Act, approved by Parliament on December 11 and signed into law by President Ram Nath Kovind on December 13, provides citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014. The Act has been widely criticised for excluding Muslims. The Centre notified it in its official gazette on Friday, making it applicable from January 10.

At least 26 people died in last month’s protests against the citizenship law. Of these, 19 died in Uttar Pradesh, five in Assam and two in Karnataka.