India to monitor safety of Hindus in Bangladesh amid ongoing unrest

Reports of violence against minorities have surfaced in the wake of the PM’s departure

New Delhi has appointed a high-level committee to monitor the safety of Indians and Hindus in Bangladesh, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday. The panel will also supervise the situation along India’s 4,096-kilometer-long border with its eastern neighbor.

The move comes following reports that Hindus, who constitute a minority in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, are facing attacks amid violent protests which prompted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee the country earlier this week.

The protests were triggered weeks earlier over discriminatory job quotas favoring the descendants of those who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. Around 300 people have been killed in the violence.

The five-member panel will maintain communication channels with Bangladeshi officials to “ensure the safety and security of Indian nationals, Hindus, and other minority communities living there,” Amit Shah has said.

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Businesses and homes owned by Hindus, a group seen by some as having been close to ousted leader Hasina, were attacked on Monday, The Hindu reported. According to the newspaper, ten temples were attacked by mobs.

Meanwhile, India has ramped up security along the border with its restive neighbor amid the violence. Earlier this week, a group of nearly 600 people from Bangladesh was stopped from entering the country at a checkpoint in West Bengal state by security forces, according to NDTV.

After resigning on Monday, Hasina flew to India and is reportedly living in a ‘safe house’ near the capital Delhi. Meanwhile, Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner known for his initiatives to financially assist the poor, has been sworn in as the head of an interim government.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while congratulating Yunus on Thursday, called for the “safety and protection” of Hindus. India’s foreign ministry also confirmed that it is “monitoring” alleged attacks targeting minorities.

New Delhi is in touch with the new administration to ensure the safety of Indian citizens and officials remaining at its missions. Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has said that around 19,000 Indian nationals, including around 9,000 students, have been living in the country. However, most of the students returned home in July after the violence erupted.

Earlier in the week, The Tribune newspaper reported that New Delhi has evacuated all non-essential staff and their families from its embassy and consulates in Bangladesh.