Breaking News:’Unavoidable circumstances’: Bangladesh halts visa services in 3 Indian cities– What Just Happened

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Bangladesh’s assistant high commission in the northeastern state of Tripura announced the suspension of visa services on Sunday following a protest outside the mission by the Tipra Motha Party and other groups. Visa services offered by a private operator on behalf of Bangladesh in Siliguri, West Bengal, were also suspended following an act of vandalism, the people said on condition of anonymity.

Notices issued by the missions in New Delhi and Agartala said all consular and visa services had been suspended until further notice because of “unavoidable circumstances”. The people said the staff of Bangladesh’s assistant high commission in Agartala were still in place.

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Bangladesh has witnessed unrest and widespread demonstrations that have taken on anti-India overtones following the death of radical student leader Sharif Osman Hadi last week. Hadi, a critic of India, died while being treated in Singapore after he was shot by gunmen in Dhaka.

A large mob tried to storm India’s assistant high commission in the southern city of Chittagong on December 18, and police used teargas and batons to disperse the protesters. Indian visa services were subsequently suspended in Chittagong.

Protests were also organised near India’s missions in Dhaka, Khulna and Rajshahi last week.

For several days, some of Bangladesh’s student leaders and politicians claimed Hadi’s killers had sneaked into India and demanded that New Delhi should hand them over, before Bangladesh Police announced on Sunday that the whereabouts of the assailants are not known.

On Sunday, India rejected reports of a security breach at the Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi as “misleading propaganda” and expressed concern at the “horrendous killing” of a Hindu man named Dipu Chandra Das in the recent protests. Das was lynched after being accused of blasphemy.

The external affairs ministry said 20 to 25 youngsters gathered in front of the high commission late on Saturday and shouted slogans in “protest against the horrendous killing” of Das, before they were dispersed by police.

However, Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister Touhid Hossain contested the Indian side’s stance on the incident and argued that there had been a serious security failure. Bangladesh’s foreign ministry also rejected the depiction of the lynching of Das as an attack on the country’s minorities.

India-Bangladesh ties have been at an all-time low since the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina government amid student-led protests and the subsequent installation of a caretaker administration led by Muhammad Yunus. The recent unrest over the death of Hadi has exacerbated the strains in the relationship.