Bangladesh High Commission stops visa services citing ‘security situation’

The Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi has stopped issuing visas citing “prevailing security situation”, a diplomatic source told The Hindu on Monday (December 22, 2025). The development came after India shuttered its visa application centres in Bangladesh that were targeted by mobs following the death of radical leader Sharif Osman Hadi who was shot on December 12 by unidentified gunmen.

Over the weekend, there were sharp exchanges between the two sides after a group of men came to the main gate of the Bangladesh mission here and shouted slogans. They allegedly hurled threats at the diplomats who were present on the mission premises.

The incident was reported by the Bangladesh media which prompted the Indian side to respond with the External Affairs Ministry describing the news reports as “misleading propaganda”. The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the incident outside its High Commission as an “unjustifiable incident”.

In the 15 months following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, 2024, issuance of visas between the two sides has been repeatedly affected, but this is the first time that Bangladesh has suspended visa services from its High Commission in New Delhi.

India had suspended its visa facility in Dhaka for the first time in July-August 2024 when the anti-Hasina uprising was at its peak. Subsequently, visa services were paused on multiple occasions though, according to officials, India had started issuing around 2,000 visas daily for Bangladeshis by November this year.

However, the latest indefinite suspension of the Indian Visa Application Centres (IVACs) came after the facilities in Khulna and Chittagong, and the Assistant High Commission in Rajshahi were targeted by mobs in the aftermath of Hadi’s death and amidst rumours that the suspected assassins had fled to India.

However, Bangladesh’s Home Affairs Adviser Lt. General Mohammed Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (retd.) said on Monday that the authorities do not have precise information about the whereabouts of the killers.

Earlier, on Monday evening, the Assistant High Commission of Bangladesh in Agartala announced that “due to unavoidable circumstances all visa and consular services” at the mission would “remain closed” from Tuesday (December 23, 2025). A demonstration was held outside the commission on Sunday with local political leaders calling for shutting it down. Protesters had stormed the mission in the first week of December 2024 when ties between the two countries had nosedived in the early days of the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus.