Eleven people were killed and dozens injured in violent protests that raged during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of Bangladesh’s independence.
Protestors including members of Hefazat-e-Islam group and students demonstrated against Modi’s discriminatory policies toward Muslims even as the Indian nationalist leader and the host country’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced agreements to expand cooperative ties.
Deaths were reported from the southeastern district of Chattogram and the Eastern district of Barahmanbaria, where students clashed with the police.
Bangladesh has deployed border guards to deal with protestors. The violent protests, which began on Friday at the main mosque in the capital, Dhaka, spread to several key districts in the country.
Modi attended Bangladesh’s Golden Jubilee celebrations of independence and the birth centenary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Rights groups have also called for an end to growing authoritarianism, including forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
On the other hand, authorities restricted Facebook in Bangladesh, a company spokesman said.
Political leaders and international rights organizations have accused Modi’s Hindu ultranationalist party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of stoking religious animosity in India and discriminating against minorities, particularly Muslims.
In recent weeks, demonstrators in Muslim-majority Bangladesh have criticized PM Hasina for inviting him to Dhaka
Bangladeshi news outlets reported on Friday that students had attacked government buildings, including a police station, in the Hathazari area of Chattogram before the clashes that led to the deaths.
Reports say violence also broke out at the Baitul Mokarram mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, as rival groups of demonstrators clashed. Police officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, injuring scores of people, according to media reports.
Bangladeshi media reported that protesters also set fire to offices at a railway station in the eastern district of Brahmanbaria.
According to the Indian media, Modi gifted 1.2 million Covid-19 vaccine doses and 109 ambulances and to Bangladesh.
More substantively, the two sides signed a series of agreements to expand cooperation in trade, disaster management, information technology and sports. The two countries also kickstarted work on infrastructure development for power evacuation facilities of an under-construction nuclear power plant in Bangladesh, a newspaper report said.
