Bangladesh sees intensified Army patrolling; Talks with PM Modi under consideration

Bangladesh experienced fresh unrest on March 22 after Army troops intensified their patrols on the streets of Dhaka. The move comes in response to rising tensions with the newly formed student-led National Citizen Party (NCP), accusing the military of political interference.

Meanwhile, the country's request for a meeting between Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the upcoming BIMSTEC Summit is under consideration.

The NCP staged protest rallies at the premier Dhaka University campus vowing to thwart at any cost a “military-backed plot” to rehabilitate deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League which was toppled seven months ago in a student-led violent street protest in July-August last year.

A key leader of NCP, which was floated last month with widely assumed blessings of Professor Muhammad Yunus, accused the military of “political interference” over a proposal for inclusiveness that would allow Awami League to participate in the next elections.

“Those who are supposed to discharge their work inside cantonment, should stay there . . . in the ‘post-revolution Bangladesh’ no interference in the political landscape from the cantonment will be accepted,” said Hasnat Abdullah in a press briefing at the NCP office.

Several hundred followers of Hasnat and NCP activists also chanted slogans at the rallies against Army chief General Waker Uz Zaman chanting “Waker or Hasnat; Hasnat, Hasnat” and demanded Hasina and her “cohorts” to be hanged after trial.

The military, which is now entrusted with maintaining nationwide law and order with magistracy power, however, did not enter the campus but continued their intensified patrol, particularly in the capital.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's request for a meeting between its interim government's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the upcoming BIMSTEC Summit is under consideration, External Affairs minister S Jaishankar is learnt to have told a Parliamentary panel meeting.

At this year's first meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for External Affairs on Saturday, several MPs raised concerns on attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, asking what steps was India taking in this regard, sources said.

They said Jaishankar informed the members that the interim government in Dhaka has claimed that the attacks on Hindus were "politically motivated" and not "minority targeted".