A commission set up by the new Bangladesh government to probe the forced disappearances on Sheikh Hasina’s watch has reportedly implicated Indian authorities in many such instances, threatening a fresh blow to bilateral ties.

This coincides with the press wing of the Muhammad Yunus government describing Indian media reports on anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh as misleading and exaggerated, handing another snub to New Delhi’s concerns about the safety of minorities in the neighbouring country.

There was no official reaction from New Delhi to Dhaka’s accusations till late on Saturday night. Multiple sources, however, told this newspaper that the Yunus regime’s actions were aimed at maintaining the anti-India mood in Bangladesh and provoking the Hindutva brigade in India.

The five-member commission probing the alleged disappearances, led by retired judge Mainul Islam Chowdhury, handed over its findings to Yunus last week. This was followed by reports in the Bangladeshi media that the commission had indicted Hasina.

The allegation of Indian involvement appeared in the media for the first time on Saturday, with the government-owned news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) filing the report.

It quoted the commission as saying: “Indian involvement in Bangladesh’s system of enforced disappearances is a matter of public record.”

It said the commission had highlighted the case of senior BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed, who was found “hanging around aimlessly” in Shillong’s Golf Link area and subsequently arrested on May 11, 2015.

Ahmed had told his interrogators that he had been picked up from Uttara in Dhaka and was clueless about how he had ended up in India.

“I only remember some armed personnel in civilian clothes abducting, blindfolding and dumping me somewhere,” Ahmed had told the media in 2018 after securing bail.

He had thanked the Indian and Meghalaya governments for their cooperation before lauding the country’s judicial system for delivering justice to him.

However, the BSS report on the commission’s findings, which refer extensively to Ahmed’s case, was focused on portraying India as an accomplice in the forced disappearances in Bangladesh.

A source in Dhaka said that Ahmed had recently applied for and secured an Indian visa. “If India was behind his disappearance, why is he again planning a trip?” the source said.

An Indian security expert said that cooperation between the security agencies of neighbouring countries was common across the globe. “It’s a motivated attempt to defame us,” he said, referring to the commission’s alleged findings.

As Dhaka denied the charges of anti-minority violence, more reports of such atrocities poured in.

At least four temples were reportedly attacked in the Mymensingh, Dinajpur and Natore districts, with eight idols vandalised, in the past two days. In Natore, the sevait of a temple at a burning ghat was allegedly hacked to death on Friday night. An organisation that works for unity among Hindus, Buddhists and Christians has sought punishment for the attackers.

“They are not taking India’s concerns seriously... and they are also trying to provoke the Hindutva brigade so that this phase of unease drags on, the exchanges between the hardliners continue, and tension prevails along the borders,” the Indian security expert said.

Some observers believe that Yunus and his team do not want a diplomatic thaw so they can prolong their stint at the helm.

“The BNP is demanding early elections but Yunus is stalling on the pretext of reforms.... As the people want an elected government to steer the reform process, this regime is keeping the pot boiling so that it can keep deferring the elections citing security concerns,” the Indian security expert said.

Speculation is rife in Bangladesh that the student coordinators who form the backbone of the current regime will soon float a political party with Yunus’s backing and that the elections will be deferred till the new outfit finds a toehold in national politics.

Aware that the BNP is getting restless, Yunus is pandering to hard-line Islamists to seek their support, a strategic affairs expert in India said.

“Yunus is doing what generals like Muhammad Ershad and Zia-ur Rahman did in the absence of popular support,” he said.

“He is cosying up to the Islamist forces, both in his country and beyond. Look at his engagements in Cairo, where he met the Pakistan Prime Minister and addressed students at Al Azhar University.”

There is a clear attempt to take Bangladesh along an Islamist path, the expert said.