China, Pakistan’s ISI make moves in turmoil-hit Dhaka
Last Updated on January 24, 2025 6:13 am
President Donald Trump’s administration discussed with New Delhi the situation in Bangladesh as the interim government in Dhaka hosted a delegation of Pakistan’s spy agency while China has promised the turmoil-hit country to help safeguard its “sovereignty and national dignity”.
A delegation of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been on a visit to Bangladesh since Tuesday. The advisor on foreign affairs of Bangladesh’s interim government, Md Touhid Hossain, on the other hand, met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Tuesday.
New Delhi is keeping a close watch on Dhaka’s increasing engagements with China and its ‘iron brother’ Pakistan amid stress in ties between India and Bangladesh after the fall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024.
With New Delhi being concerned over the persecution of Hindus and other minority communities of Bangladesh over the past few months, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar discussed the issue with the new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the first formal engagement between President Donald Trump’s administration and the Government of India.
“Yes, we had a brief discussion on Bangladesh. I don’t think it’s appropriate that I get into more details,” Jaishankar said while speaking to journalists.
A few days before the US presidential elections on November 6, Trump had condemned the “barbaric violence” against the Hindus, Christians and other minority communities in Bangladesh.
The attempt by Yunus’s interim government in Dhaka to dismiss New Delhi’s concerns over atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh strained the bilateral relations. Dhaka’s call for extradition of Sheikh Hasina from India and the tension along the border between the two sides also worsened the ties between the two neighbouring countries.
The Pakistan Army’s genocide in East Pakistan before its defeat to the Muktijoddhas and the Indian Army, leading to the birth of Bangladesh in 1971, cast a long shadow over Dhaka’s relations with Islamabad over the past half a century.
After taking over as the chief advisor of the interim government of Bangladesh, Yunus had two meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan and discussed the ways to move forward to end the historical animosity between the two nations.