Four killed in Bangladesh during protests against Modi visit

At least four people were killed in the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong after police fired at protesters during a demonstration against a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, police officials said.

“We had to fire teargas and rubber bullets to disperse them as they entered a police station and carried out extensive vandalism,” Rafiqul Islam, a police official, told Reuters news agency, referring to protesters.

Modi is in Bangladesh to attend its Golden Jubilee celebrations of independence and the birth centenary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s founder and father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The protesters in Chittagong were from the Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, an Islamist group opposed to the visit of Modi, who critics say has been pushing a Hindu-first agenda in India.

Mohammad Alauddin, another police official in Chittagong, said that eight people were brought to a hospital in the city with gunshot wounds, of which four succumbed to their injuries

Protests at the main mosque in the city of Dhaka were dispersed by police using tear gas and rubber bullets – injuring scores of people – after clashes broke out between groups of demonstrators, officials and witnesses said on Friday.

Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside Dhaka’s Baitul Mokarram mosque after the Friday prayers. Witnesses said violent clashes broke out after one faction of protesters began waving their shoes as a sign of disrespect to Modi, and another group tried to stop them.

Local media said the protesters who tried to stop the shoe-waving are aligned with the governing Awami League party, which criticised the other protest faction for attempting to create chaos during Modi’s visit.

Local TV showed protesters throwing stones at the police, who were heavily present on the streets near the mosque. Somoy TV reported that at least 40 people were injured, including journalists, and were taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment.

Dhaka: Sheikh Rehana, the younger daughter of Bangladesh's Father of Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, receives Gandhi Peace Prize 2020 which has been conferred upon him posthumously. pic.twitter.com/xlrf5deu2o

— ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2021

Modi’s two-day tour – his first abroad since the coronavirus pandemic began last year – will cap Dhaka’s 10-day celebrations already attended by leaders from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.

Prime Minister Hasina, a key partner for India in maintaining regional stability, welcomed Modi at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Friday morning.

‘We don’t want him’

Friday’s was the latest in a series of protests held across Bangladesh to oppose the visit by Modi, who many Bangladeshis accuse of stoking religious tensions and persecuting Muslims in India.

On Thursday, police in Dhaka fired rubber bullets and tear gas at hundreds of mainly student demonstrators protesting against the Hindu nationalist leader’s visit and criticising the government for inviting him.

Sheikh Mujib fought for a secular nation whereas Modi is inherently communal.

by Imtiaz Ahmed, Dhaka University professor

Police said the protest got out of hand as nearly 2,000 demonstrators marched in Dhaka, with many throwing rocks and stones at officers. Dozens were wounded, with at least 18 sent to hospitals in the city.

“We fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them… We have also arrested 33 people for violence,” police official Syed Nurul Islam told AFP news agency on Thursday.

At another protest outside Baitul Mokarram mosque last Friday, protesters said more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002, when Modi was the chief minister.

“His government has passed several laws which make Muslims a second-class citizen in India. We don’t want him here in Bangladesh,” Maulana Mamunul Haque, secretary-general of Hefazat-e-Islam, an Islamist political organisation, told Al Jazeera.

“A leader like him should not be allowed to attend the 50th Independence Day event.”

Even though Hefazat-e-Islam calls itself “non-political”, the Islamist organisation has gained eminence after the fall of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist political party.

At the protest outside Baitul Mukarram mosque, Hefazat supporters slammed Modi for “killing Muslims in Gujarat, Kashmir, Delhi and other parts of India”. They took their shoes in their hands to show disrespect to the Indian leader.

Foez Ullah, president of the Bangladesh Students’ Union, said Modi’s policies go against the basic tenets of Bangladesh’s founding principles.

“Inviting India’s riotous, communal prime minister Narendra Modi to the golden jubilee of independence is against the spirit of the liberation war,” the group said in a statement.

His government has passed several laws which make Muslims a second-class citizen in India.

by Maulana Mamunul Haque, Islamist leader

Protesters also criticised the killings of Bangladeshis by Indian border guards. India says such casualties happen when Bangladeshis are involved in cross-border smuggling and attempt to cross the border “illegally”.

Many Bangladeshis are also unhappy with India’s unwillingness to sign a water-sharing treaty for the Teesta river, one of many common rivers.

“Our rulers in Bangladesh call India as our friend but the BSF (India’s Border Security Force) is often shooting and killing our people on Bangladesh-India border,” Foez Ullah told Al Jazeera.

“Bangladesh has not yet received its fair share of Teesta water. Our rivers, ports, the Sundarbans are all victims of Indian aggression. India is interfering in internal affairs of Bangladesh politics.”

India helped Bangladesh gain independence from Pakistan through a nine-month bloody war in 1971. Dhaka and New Delhi have since shared close ties.

“Our partnership with Bangladesh is an important pillar of our Neighbourhood First policy, and we are committed to further deepen and diversify it. We will continue to support Bangladesh’s remarkable development journey, under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s dynamic leadership,” Modi said in a tweet late on Thursday ahead of his trip.

Earlier this week, Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Minister AK Abdul Momen told Al Jazeera that since India helped Bangladesh achieve its independence, “so it is very natural that the Indian prime minister will be asked to become Bangladesh’s Golden Jubilee celebration’s main guest”.

“We are not concerned what the fundamentalists are saying about Modi’s visit. They do not represent the voice of the country’s people,” he said, adding that “only a small fraction of people” were protesting.

“They are making an issue out of it without any valid reason,” he told Al Jazeera.

But Imtiaz Ahmed, professor of international relations at Dhaka University, feels inviting Modi for the celebrations was “not a good choice”.

“Along with the Golden Jubilee, we are also celebrating the birth centenary of father of the nation. Sheikh Mujib fought for a secular nation whereas Modi is inherently communal. He [Modi] is criticised in his own country for his hardliner Hindu nationalist stance,” Ahmed told Al Jazeera.

Ali Riaz, distinguished professor of politics and government at the Illinois State University in the United States, told Al Jazeera there was widespread discontent among a large number of Bangladeshis about the unequal relationship between India and Bangladesh.

“It is generally understood that India has enormous influence on the domestic politics of Bangladesh. BJP leaders’ derogatory statements about Bangladeshis and discriminatory policies of the Modi government have also compounded the situation,” he said.

Faisal Mahmud contributed to this report from Dhaka, Bangladesh