NEW DELHI (AFP) – India’s top diplomat will head to Bangladesh tomorrow after the student-led revolution in August that toppled autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina’s government in Dhaka soured ties between the two neighbours.
The 77-year-old remains in New Delhi where she took refuge after her ouster, despite Bangladesh announcing it would seek her extradition. Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal confirmed that his department’s secretary Vikram Misri would visit Bangladesh tomorrow.
Misri “will meet his counterpart and there will be several other meetings during the visit”, Jaiswal told journalists in New Delhi.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84, faced numerous criminal proceedings during Hasina’s regime that her critics say were concocted to sideline one of her potential rivals. Numerous street demonstrations have been staged against India in Bangladesh since Hasina’s ouster.
Several rallies were held this week to protest an attempt by activists to storm a Bangladeshi consulate in an Indian city not far from the neighbours’ shared border.
India condemned the breach afterwards and arrested seven people over the incident. The two neighbours are key economic partners with annual bilateral trade worth about USD14 billion.
