Kolkata: Bangladesh High Commissioner in New Delhi, Riaz Hamidullah, is likely to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna on Monday.
The visit comes in the wake of heightened tensions in Bangladesh following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government. Recently, a mob vandalised the ancestral home of Rabindranath Tagore at Kachharibari in the Sirajganj district. In response, Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to intervene and call for “a strong international protest,” which she said “would at least deter in future any attack on monuments of cultural legacies”.
In her letter to the Prime Minister, Banerjee stated: “Although untold damage has already been done, a strong international protest would at least deter any attack on monuments of cultural legacies in the future… What has been vandalised is not a mere house, but a towering fountain of creativity in our subcontinent.”
Against this backdrop, Hamidullah’s meeting with Banerjee assumes significance. He is expected to provide her with detailed information about the incident. Border-related issues may also feature in the discussions.
This will be the first meeting between Banerjee and a Bangladeshi envoy since June 2016, when the then High Commissioner, Syed Muazzem Ali, had called on the Chief Minister.
During his Bengal tour, Hamidullah is also likely to meet former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar on Tuesday morning.
A meeting with Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose is also expected.