April 21, 2025
DHAKA – India has reacted sharply to the remarks of Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam who urged New Delhi to take steps to protect the Muslim population of Murshidabad in West Bengal.
A statement from India’s external affairs ministry termed his comments a “barely disguised and disingenuous attempt to draw a parallel with India’s concerns over the ongoing persecution of minorities in Bangladesh”.
“We reject the remarks made by the Bangladesh side with regard to the incidents in West Bengal,” the ministry’s spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in the statement issued yesterday in response to media queries on Shafiqul’s comments.
“Instead of making unwarranted comments and indulging in virtue signalling, Bangladesh would do better to focus on protecting the rights of its own minorities,” Jaiswal said.
India has been flagging its concerns over alleged attacks on minorities in Bangladesh after last year’s political changeover. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue during his first bilateral meeting with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus in Bangkok earlier this month.
Bangladesh has maintained that the incidents were not communal, but political.
Meanwhile, deadly clashes erupted in Murshidabad earlier this week amid ongoing protests in different parts of India against the amendment to a law on Waqf properties, which are Muslim-donated lands. Opposition parties and Muslim outfits have voiced concern over its implications for minority rights and religious freedom.
The Indian media published reports on a government probe that suggested involvement of “Bangladeshi miscreants” in the violence in Murshidabad.
During a press conference at the Foreign Service Academy on Thursday, Shafiqul protested any attempts to implicate Bangladesh in the communal violence in Murshidabad.
“We urge the Government of India and West Bengal to take all steps to fully protect the minority Muslim population,” he added.