India confident Bangladesh will deal with Islamist challenges
India expressed confidence that the Bangladesh government will aptly deal with the challenges posed by Islamist and fundamentalists groups that had recently been involved in staging violent protests during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the country.
Hefazat-e-Islam, the main Islamist group in Bangladesh, spearheaded the violent protests that had claimed the lives of 12 people and injured many, including police personnel and journalists. The group opposed the decision of the Bangladesh government to invite Modi whom they considered anti-Muslim.
In its weekly press briefing on Friday, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry of India, said, “As far as the violence is concerned, we have always been against fundamentalism and extremism. We are confident that the Bangladesh government will address the challenge.”
The Islamist group, Hefazat-e-Islam, rose to prominence in Bangladesh after the Hasina government clamped down on the Jamaat-e-Islami, the notorious Islamist group that sided with the Pakistan army, and was involved in the killings of Bangladeshis in 1971.
The violent anti-Modi protests, led by Islamists and fundamentalists, would not cast a shadow on the India-Bangladesh ties.
“Modi's visit to Bangladesh had facilitated significant decisions to reinforce the legacy of 1971 and this is in furtherance of India-Bangladesh bilateral cooperation," Bagchi said on Friday.
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