Bangladesh’s home minister Asaduzzaman Khan cancels private visit to Shillong amid protests over citizenship law.
Khan is the second dignitary from Bangladesh to put off his visit to the country. Just hours earlier, Dhaka had informed New Delhi that Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen would skip his scheduled visit to the national capital due to “domestic issues”.
Over the last day or two, Momen has made his reservations on the new citizenship law be known and had even invited Home Minister Amit Shah, through press statements, over to his country and see for himself that minorities were safe.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had responded to reports linking Momen’s change in plans to the Citizenship Amendment Bill passed in Parliament yesterday and stressed that there was no link between the two developments.
Kumar quoted from a communication from Bangladesh that attributed the foreign minister’s change of plans to “domestic issues in connection with their Victory Day on December 16”.
Prasanta Patnaik