Moneycontrol News :
Dhaka has sought written assurance from India that immigrants will not be sent back to Bangladesh after the Citizenship Amendment Act and/or the National Register of Citizens (NRC) come into force, ThePrint has reported.
The report suggests that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made a similar demand during her private visit to India in October.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
That time, India reportedly gave verbal assurance to Bangladesh that those found to be ‘foreigners’ under the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam would not be sent back to Bangladesh.
However, the submission of written assurance was reportedly refused.
Earlier, an adviser to PM Hasina told news agency PTI that the country would take back undocumented Bangladeshi Muslim migrants from India if New Delhi provided evidence.
“We will take back any Bangladeshi citizen staying in India illegally,” Gauhar Rizvi said.
“But, India has to prove that,” he said, adding that amendments to the citizenship law were India’s internal matter. India has witnessed massive protests against the CAA and the NRC in the last few weeks. However, the government claims that no formal discussion has so far happened on a nationwide NRC.
A visit by Bangladesh’s Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and Foreign Affairs Minister AK Abdul Momen was cancelled amid this stir. The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs also called the Indian High Commissioner to discuss an alleged attack on its diplomatic mission and on a senior diplomat in Guwahati, Assam by groups protesting the CAA.
According to the CAA, those who have come to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 after having faced religious persecution in their native country will not be treated as illegal immigrants but would be eligible for Indian citizenship. However, it will be applicable only to members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities.
