India and Bangladesh traded sharp exchanges on Sunday as Dhaka rejected New Delhi’s criticism over what India described as unremitting hostility against minorities in Bangladesh, while developments in two separate killings further complicated bilateral relations and fuelled public anger on both sides of the border.
Bangladesh’s foreign affairs ministry said India’s assessment did not reflect the facts, and argued that isolated criminal incidents were being portrayed as systematic persecution of Hindus to advance anti-Bangladesh propaganda, even as it urged Indian quarters to avoid undermining neighbourly relations and mutual trust.
The response came days after India’s external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal raised concerns following the lynching of Hindu garment worker Dipu Das and the killing of another Hindu man, Amrit Mondal, framing both incidents within a broader question of minority security.
Dhaka also challenged India’s characterisation of Mondal’s death, stating that he was beaten while allegedly committing extortion alongside a Muslim accomplice who was later arrested, and maintained that linking the incident to minority persecution was misleading.
At the same time, the Bangladeshi government reiterated its position that figures cited by India, including claims of more than 2,900 attacks on minorities during the tenure of Muhammad Yunus’s interim government, were exaggerated and failed to distinguish between criminal acts and politically motivated violence.
The diplomatic dispute unfolded alongside fresh developments in the killing of Bangladeshi student leader Osman Hadi, whose death had triggered unrest that led to Das being lynched on December 18.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police announced that two primary suspects in Hadi’s killing had fled to India, allegedly crossing into Meghalaya through the Haluaghat border in Mymensingh and travelling onwards to Tura, a claim that earlier speculation had already inflamed anti-India sentiment on Bangladesh’s streets.
Additional commissioner S.N. Nazrul Islam said Bangladeshi authorities were in contact with Indian counterparts through formal and informal channels to secure the suspects’ arrest and extradition, while also indicating that individuals who allegedly aided their movement in India had been detained, though no timeline for the escape was provided.
Indian authorities, however, disputed these assertions, with a senior Meghalaya police official telling the Hindustan Times that no communication had been received from Bangladesh and that none of the accused had been traced in the Garo Hills. Border Security Force inspector general O.P. Upadhyay similarly denied any evidence of a cross-border escape from the Haluaghat sector.