A day after the head priest and four other Indians at the Ramakrishna (RK) Mission in Bangladesh received death threats by Islamist militants claiming to be supporters of the ISIS, India approached Bangladeshi authorities to step up security at the complex.
Bangladesh police have registered a case in Dhaka and are on a lookout for those who could possibly harm the Indians at the RK Mission.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said on Friday the Indian High Commission has taken up the issue with Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry and police.
“High Commission of India, Dhaka, has contacted both Bangladesh police and MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and has been assured of full support and protection. We are also in direct contact with the RK Mission in Dhaka,” Swarup said.
He added police presence at the complex has been strengthened and the First Secretary (Consular) in the High Commission visited the RK Mission on Friday morning to review the security.
According to reports from Dhaka, the threatening message came in a letter having ISIS letterhead that read “Islamic State of Bangladesh, Chandna intersection,
Eidgah Market, Gazipur Municipality.” Signed by one AB Siddique the letter asked the priest and others at the mission to stop preaching their religion in “Islamic Bangladesh”. The Dhaka Ramakrishna Mission is a branch of the Belur Math in Kolkata.
“Bangladesh is an Islamic State. You can’t preach your religion here. If you continue preaching, you’ll be hacked to death with machetes between the 20th and 30th,” the Wari Police Station duty officer quoted the letter as saying. The letter, he said, did not mention any month. Suspected Islamists have killed a number of secular activists, Hindus and other minorities across Bangladesh in recent months prompting authorities to launch a nationwide anti-militant clampdown since Friday. “The security of the mission has been intensified as the priest filed a general diary with us,” the officer said.
The latest threat comes at a time when already several activists and religious minorities, including Hindus, in Bangladesh have been attacked and on June 7, a 70-year-old Hindu priest was beheaded in the Jhenaidah district of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh authorities detained nearly 12,000 people in a nationwide crackdown to halt a spate of deadly attacks. Some of those arrested were linked with outlawed Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh.
Though most of the attacks were claimed by the Islamic State or its affiliates and other similar extremist groups, the Bangladesh Government has repeatedly dismissed the claims and said the attacks were carried out by homegrown outfits linked to the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.