The allegations that the former chief minister of West Bengal, also president of the Trinamool Congress, made at rally in Kolkata on June 2 warrant serious diplomatic attention. In her first public appearance after her defeat in the West Bengal legislative assembly elections in April, which ended her 15-year rule of the state, Mamata Banerjee alleged that India’s home minister asked her to keep quiet about the arrest of suspects linked to the killing of a Bangladeshi activist. Although she did not name the activist, it is assumed that she was referring to the killing of Sharif Osman Hadi, founder of Inquilab Mancha, a platform established after the 2024 uprising and critical of Indian hegemony in the region. Her detailed comments on the matter have raised serious questions about the possible stakes of India in the killing of Sharif Osman Hadi as well as in the subsequent violence in Bangladesh. Taken together, the developments raise broader concerns about the extent of India’s perceived influence on Bangladesh’s internal political and security affairs.
Bangladesh’s immediate response that it is working with India through diplomatic channels to bring back killers of the slain activist and it will consider any official communication from the Indian government appears poorly thought through and is, therefore, unacceptable. While addressing the media on June 3, the state minister for foreign affairs said that the former West Bengal chief minister’s comment does not concern Bangladesh. Her remark is disconcerting, given growing public concern about India’s interference in Bangladesh’s internal affairs, particularly in the light of media reports alleging the presence of Indian intelligence operatives. In February, Bangladesh’s former army chief Iqbal Karim Bhuiya, in his deposition in International Crimes Tribunal 1 as the first prosecution witness in a crimes against humanity case, stated that India’s foreign intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing had access to Bangladesh armed forces intelligence and was provided office space within their premises. Besides push-ins, other hostile incidents, including a rise in border killings by India’s border guards, the installation of poles within 150 yards of no man’s land and growing tension between Bangladeshis and the Indian guards, have increased after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral victory in West Bengal. In this context, the Trinamool leader’s allegation should not be read in isolation but should be viewed with appropriate diplomatic sensitivity.
The former West Bengal chief minister’s allegation that leaders in the central government in India may have played a role in concealing the names of the killers of a young leader in Bangladesh will further aggravate the already strained relationship with India if it is left unaddressed. Dhaka should diplomatically raise its concern with the Delhi while it should expedite the extradition of suspected killers of Osman Hadi.
