DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday urged the country’s politicians to keep differences at bay and put up a united front to counter “Indian aggression”.

In August, a student-led uprising led to widespread protests in the country, that toppled autocratic premier Sheikh Hasina and ended her 15-year reign.

India — Hasina’s biggest international patron and the destination of her exile — has accused Yunus’ administration of failing to protect minority Hindus, straining ties between the neighbours.

“They are undermining our efforts to build a new Bangladesh and are spreading fictitious stories,” Yunus told a gathering of Bangladeshi political parties. “They have spread these rumours in particular countries and among influential players.”

Interim Bangladeshi leader describes the matter as ‘question of existence’

Yunus urged politicians at the meeting to unite against what he characterised as a disinformation campaign, describing the matter as “a question of our existence”.

A caretaker administration headed by Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been tasked with enacting democratic reforms ahead of fresh elections.

The chaotic aftermath of Hasina’s ouster saw a smattering of reprisal attacks against Hindus and other minorities, based in part on their perceived support for her government. Yunus’s administration has acknowledged and condemned attacks on Hindus but said in many cases they were motivated by politics rather than religion.

It has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence and running a “propaganda campaign”.

Wednesday’s meeting, Yunus’s media team said, was part of an initiative to promote national unity in the face of “Indian aggression”. Yunus also met with student leaders on Tuesday evening Numerous street demonstrations have been staged against India in Bangladesh since Hasina’s ouster as diplomatic relations have cratered.

Several rallies were held on Wednesday to protest against an attempt by Hindu activists this week to storm a Bangladeshi consulate in an Indian city not far from the neighbours’ shared border. India has condemned the breach and arrested seven people over the incident.

Escaped prisoners

Around 700 Bangladeshi prison inmates were still on the run after mass jailbreaks over the summer during the student-led revolution that ousted autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, authorities said on Wednesday.

In the weeks before Hasina’s departure, revolts or sieges by protesters at five prisons around the Muslim-majority South Asian nation saw roughly 2,200 inmates break out of their cells.

Prisons chief Syed Mohammad Motaher Hossain told reporters that around 1,500 of that number had since been captured, with the remainder still at large. Hossain said that at least 70 fugitives were either “terrorists” or death row convicts.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2024