India on Thursday strongly condemned the demolition of the Durga temple in Dhaka, asserting that the Muhammad Yunus-led interim authorities allowed its destruction beneath the guise of unlawful land use.
India has additionally expressed disappointment that such incidents are recurring in Bangladesh. India has emphasised that it’s the duty of the interim authorities of Bangladesh to guard Hindus, their properties and their spiritual establishments.
“We perceive that extremists had been clamouring for demolishing the Durga temple in Khilkhet, Dhaka. The interim authorities, as an alternative of offering safety to the temple, projected the episode as a case of unlawful land use and allowed the destruction of the temple right this moment,” Ministry of Exterior Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal mentioned at a weekly media briefing in New Delhi.
“This has resulted in harm to the deity earlier than it was shifted. We’re dismayed that such incidents proceed to recur in Bangladesh. Let me underline that it’s the duty of the interim authorities of Bangladesh to guard Hindus, their properties, and their spiritual establishments,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) had highlighted one other such incident, terming the vandalisation of a Mahastri Manasa and Durga Temple in Dinajpur district by miscreants as a horrifying act of terrorising the Hindu minority neighborhood within the nation.
“The assailants vandalised the temple, smashed idols, and severed the pinnacle of the Goddess Manasa’s idol — an act of deep sacrilege designed to humiliate the minority neighborhood and instill worry. Because the attackers fled, they threatened native Hindus with additional violence, vowing to kill neighborhood members on the subsequent alternative,” learn a press release issued by the HRCBM.
“The institutionalised worry prevalent amongst Bangladesh’s Hindu neighborhood — fueled by years of targetted violence, social marginalization, and systemic failures was painfully evident on this case,” it added.
India has taken a troublesome line on the rights of the Hindu minority and repeatedly said that there’s “systematic persecution of Hindu minorities” beneath the Yunus-led interim authorities in Bangladesh.
Responding to a different query about China, Pakistan and Bangladesh holding their first trilateral assembly in Kunming not too long ago, the MEA spokesperson mentioned that New Delhi continues to maintain an in depth watch on the developments within the neighbourhood that have an effect on the pursuits and safety of the nation.
“We preserve a continuing watch on developments in our neighbourhood which have a bearing on our pursuits and safety. Our relationships with particular person nations, whereas standing on their very own footing, additionally have in mind the evolving context as properly,” he talked about.
The primary trilateral assembly was held in China’s southern Yunnan province on June 19 the place all three nations vowed their dedication to a “shared” future.
Through the assembly, the three sides additionally agreed to boost their cooperation for enhancing regional connectivity and deepening cooperation within the various fields of bilateral cooperation, together with commerce and funding, agriculture, digital economic system, environmental safety and marine sciences, inexperienced infrastructure, tradition, schooling, and people-to-people exchanges.
Bangladesh’s rising outreach to China and Pakistan beneath the interim administration of Yunus stays fairly noticeable since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster in August 2024.
For many years, Dhaka-Islamabad relations remained frigid and hostile. Nonetheless, with Yunus on the helm, a silver lining is clearly noticeable within the case of Bangladesh-Pakistan relationship.
Analysts consider that Pakistan is leveraging the scenario by positioning its non-state actors in Bangladesh, making them mingle with Rohingya refugees and dealing at the side of the radical-Islamist coterie selling anti-India actions.
(With IANS inputs)