Two Bangladeshi ministers cancel India visit

Dhaka – Two senior Bangladeshi cabinet ministers have canceled their pre-scheduled visit to India seemingly after protests brew in north-east India over passage of a law allowing citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from neighboring countries.

Three protesters have reportedly been died after being shot by police in India’s north-eastern Assam state on Thursday as protests raged against the legislation.

Bangladeshi Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, who was scheduled to visit Indian State of Meghalaya on Friday, suspended his trip. He was invited by the Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad Kongkal Sangma.

The visit will take place at a time convenient for the minister sometime later, an official at the Ministry of Home Affairs said on Thursday.  

Earlier on the day, Foreign Minister Abul Kalam Abdul Momen also cancelled his trip to New Delhi, where he was supposed to attend the sixth edition of the Indian Ocean Dialogue (IOD).

He was also scheduled for bilateral discussion with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar on the sidelines of the conference. Momen was scheduled to fly to Delhi on Thursday on a three-day visit.

But the Foreign Ministry cited that the minister would be busy on the occasion of Bangladesh’s Victory Day programme on Monday in Dhaka,

The cancellations come a day after Dhaka voiced its concerns over the passage of the Indian citizenship law.

The law will allow Indian citizenship for the members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have migrated from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014 in the face of persecution.

Bangladesh rejected the allegations of persecution saying that there was no persecution on religious minorities.

Foreign Minister Momen in his observation on the new law said passage of bill could weaken India’s historic character as a secular nation.

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