India has sought better security measures for its Visa offices in Bangladesh after some protesters recently stormed one of the Visa centres in Dhaka. The protest was staged at the Indian Visa Application Centre (IVAC) at Jamuna Future Park on Monday, with hundreds of people applying for tourist visas. While the protest did not turn into an act of vandalism and violence, authorities were alerted, and numerous police officers were needed to disperse the crowd.
For this reason, the Indian High Commission has officially written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh to provide adequate security to all the Indian visa centres across Bangladesh. This has come in the wake of the protest gaining much publicity with a video showing the protestors chanting anti-India slogans and demanding visas.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mainul Hasan on Tuesday said that security arrangements have been beefed up in the diplomatic enclave of Dhaka. In response to the Monday obfuscation event, Hasan said, ‘Security has been stepped up since that regrettable event…’ This step is to be taken in a bid to ensure there is minimized insecurity that is as a result of the protest and the current promotion of anti-India sentiments by some factions of politicians and students.
Considering recent events, it was decided in Dhaka that the Indian mission here will focus on the visa issued from Bangladesh to Indian medical emergencies to Bangladeshi nationals or students admitted to the European courses, whose diplomatic affairs are dealt with by the Indian missions In New Delhi. This decision knits into the attempts to sustain diplomatic and security measures given the existing insecurity around the targets of India in Bangladesh.
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