Bangladesh Opposition leader warns against India corridor, seeks fair Ganges water pact: Reports

A Bangladesh Opposition leader has warned against any move to facilitate an Indian transit corridor through the country and called for a fair water-sharing agreement with New Delhi ahead of the expiry of the Ganges treaty in December, according to local media reports.

National Citizen Party (NCP) convener Nahid Islam made the remarks at a rally in Dhaka on Friday, attended by hundreds of supporters.  It was primarily organised to demand the resignation of Bangladesh’s Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed and Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood Tuku over their alleged failure to maintain law and order and address shortages of gas and electricity. In the rally, the NCP leader also accused Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s Government of seeking to facilitate an Indian transit corridor through the country.

He also threatened fresh protests if the Ganges water-sharing agreement was not renewed on terms that protected Bangladesh’s share of the river’s waters, according to Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo and the bdnews24 news website.

The NCP is a political party formed in February 2025 by leaders of the student-led movement that spearheaded the July-August 2024 protests, which led to the ouster of then prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

“Japan is trying to create a corridor through Bangladesh once again. The Government is trying to hand over the illegal corridor to India. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, we want to say clearly that the people of Bangladesh will not accept any such illegal corridor,” bdnews24 quoted Nahid as saying. Rahman visited Japan from October 26 to 29, during which the two countries agreed to upgrade their Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (BIG-B) initiative into a new strategic cooperation initiative focused on strengthening connectivity.