India has promised Bangladesh that it will gradually restart full visa operations, which have been restricted for the previous 1.5 years due to security concerns, according to Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed today.
After paying Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma a courtesy call, the minister gave the statement to reporters at the Home Ministry.
The minister claims that the Indian envoy met with him as part of standard procedure after the new cabinet was formed.
Regarding the current status of visa operations, Salahuddin said India notified the ministry that during the previous 18 months, attacks had been launched against its consulates and visa offices in Bangladesh, preventing them from operating to their full potential.
He added that India has now assured Dhaka that steps are being taken to gradually restore full visa services as the security situation improves.
The development is expected to ease travel and strengthen people-to-people connectivity between the two neighbouring countries.
In response, the High Commissioner said that sufficient medical visas are being issued.
However, mob attacks, protests, and general security concerns have resulted in the closure of several visa offices and a decrease in the number of visas issued over the past 18 months.
He stated that visa centers will reopen in phases as Bangladesh’s political government was established and law and order improved, and that once security was guaranteed, visa issuing would progressively rise.
According to a Home Ministry press release, the minister promised that mob attacks against Indian visa facilities and other Indian establishments would not be permitted.
He stated that the Indian High Commission and visa offices have sufficient protection.
The High Commissioner added that Indian visa applications are now processed online and that there had been attempts to hack the website. He requested necessary action in this regard.
The minister instructed the Cyber Crime Unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit to take appropriate measures.
Bangladesh–India bilateral relations will be based on people-to-people contact, not on ties between any political parties, said the Home Minister.
The minister stated that Bangladesh wants to move the relationship forward, not backward. Learning from past experiences, both sides aim to renew their bilateral ties.
He underlined that the two nations have a shared history and culture and that their reliance on one another should be seen as a strength rather than a weakness. He asserts that the relationship will be built on a basis of common interests.
Security cooperation, upholding law and order, preventing mob violence and attacks, reopening Indian visa centers and boosting the rate of visa issuance, fighting cybercrime, and preventing border killings were just a few of the many topics of mutual interest that the two sides discussed during the meeting.
It also discussed holding director-general level conferences between the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and India’s Border Security Force (BSF), training exchanges between the police academies of the two countries, sending more trainees under India’s ITEC program for capacity building, exchange of prisoners, expansion of trade and commerce, and strengthening overall bilateral relations.
The minister also said that border killings remain an issue hindering bilateral relations and requested that the number of such incidents be brought down to zero as quickly as possible.
The minister assured that more Bangladeshi trainees from law enforcement agencies would be sent to India for capacity-building training.
At the beginning of the meeting, the minister welcomed the Indian High Commissioner, who congratulated him on his appointment.
Salahuddin thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for congratulating Bangladesh’s newly elected Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.
The High Commissioner expressed hope that both sides would work together to rejuvenate their historic bilateral ties.
*
Email *
Website
