A New Round of Deterioration in India-Bangladesh Relations |
The New Eastern Outlook has previously noted that the tensions in the South Asian subregion had generally aggravated, but at the end of the last year, these tensions received further confirmation with a new escalation in the relations between India and Bangladesh.
Bilateral Relations After the Coup: On the Brink of Deterioration
Ultimately, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, who had headed the government since 2009 but lost control of the country, was forced to urgently seek refuge in neighbouring India. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate in economics, who arrived from London, became the leader of the government ad interim. His immediate tasks were:
However, following a court hearing on November 17, 2025, Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death. Subsequently, Muhammad Yunus demanded the extradition of the former prime minister from the Indian government, which, apart from the postponed elections, contributed significantly to the further deterioration in bilateral relations.
A perilous threshold was reached after a series of high-profile events in the second half of December last year.
A Series of Murders and Demonstrations: Escalation of the Conflict
The key event was the attempt at assassinating the leader of the 2024 summer student protests, Sharif Osman Hadi, in Dhaka on December 18. He was immediately transported to a hospital in Singapore, where he died the following day. Although the perpetrator’s identity remains unknown, the version of an........