- By Nidhi Giri
- Wed, 17 Dec 2025 12:25 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday summoned Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Riaz Hamidullah after a senior Bangladeshi political leader warned that Dhaka could support forces hostile to India, including separatist groups, and hinted at efforts to isolate India’s northeastern states, collectively known as the 'Seven Sisters'.
MEA will lodge a complaint over provocative anti-India statements made by Hasnat Abdullah, a senior leader of the newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP). Abdullah made the remarks on Monday while addressing a gathering at Dhaka’s Central Shaheed Minar. He warned that Bangladesh could offer refuge to separatist and anti-India forces if India continued to provide shelter to individuals who, according to him, do not respect Bangladesh’s sovereignty, voting rights and human rights.
"I want to make it clear to India that if you provide shelter to forces that do not respect Bangladesh’s sovereignty, potential, voting rights, and human rights, Bangladesh will respond,” Abdullah said, in an apparent reference to former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in exile in India since fleeing the country in August 2024.
Threat To India’s 'Seven Sisters'
Abdullah went further, stating that Bangladesh could allow such forces to operate in a manner that would effectively cut off India’s northeastern states from the rest of the country. The 'Seven Sisters include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Of these, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram share a land border with Bangladesh.
“If Bangladesh is destabilised, the fire of resistance will spread beyond its borders,” Abdullah warned, adding that Dhaka could provide sanctuary to “separatist and anti-India forces”.
He also accused unnamed external actors of trying to dominate Bangladesh even decades after its independence, claiming that “vultures” were still seeking control over the country.