India Resumes Operations At Dhaka Visa Centre After Closure Due To Protests

India on Thursday resumed operations at its Visa Application Centre (IVAC) in Dhaka a day, after it was temporarily closed due to security concerns over an anti-Indian march to its High Commission in Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, two other identical facilities in other parts of the neighbouring country remained shut due to security reasons.

The IVAC located at Jamuna Future Park (JFP) in Dhaka serves as the principal integrated centre for all Indian visa services in the capital. Now functional, the facility was shut due to planned march called by the July Oikyo, a hardline group, titled “March to Indian High Commission” to demand the return of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who were sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, news agency PTI reported.

However, IVACs at southwestern Khulna and northwestern Rajshahi remained closed over security concerns amid strong protest marches towards the facilities.

An official notification on the IVAC website read, “In view of the on-going security situation, we wish to bring to your kind notice that IVAC Rajshahi and Khulna will be closed today (18.12.2025). All applicants who have appointment slots booked for submission today will be given a slot at a later date.”

Dozens of protesters attempted to march to the office of the Assistant Indian High Commissioner in Rajshahi on Thursday, demanding the “repatriation of all the killers including Sheikh Hasina.” Police stalled the march, saying they had heard the demonstrators’ concerns and would forward their demands to the authorities. Police in riot gear blocked them near the mission when a brief clash occurred as the protestors tried to break through the security barricades.

In Khulna, the protestors under a banner called ‘Unity Against Indian Hegemony’ tried to march towards the Assistant High Commission but security forces thwart the marchers.

“We had enforced a stringent vigil preventing them (protestors) from proceeding towards the mission. They left the scene after staging a ‘peaceful’ rally,” Khulna’s deputy commissioner of police Tajul Islam said as quoted by the news agency.

There have been similar anti-India protests in Dhaka and other parts for some time.

There are five IVAC centres in Bangladesh. Apart from those in Dhaka, Khulna and Rajshahi, the two others are in the northeastern port city of Chattogram and northeastern Sylhet.

The development came after India summoned Bangladesh’s High Commissioner in New Delhi, Muhammad Riaz Hamidullah, to issue a formal diplomatic protest over recent threats to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka and inflammatory anti-India statements by Bangladeshi political leaders.

Three days ago, the Bangladesh foreign ministry had summoned Indian envoy to Dhaka, Pranay Verma, and conveyed its concern over former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s “incendiary” statements from Indian soil.

In its reaction, New Delhi asserted that it has never allowed its territory to be used for activities inimical to the interests of Bangladesh.

India-Bangladesh Relations

India–Bangladesh relations have been strained since the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5, 2024, following student-led protests. Hasina fled to India after her ouster and has since been staying in a secret safe house in New Delhi.

Hasina, who resigned, was recently sentenced to death by a Bangladeshi International Crimes Tribunal for alleged crimes against humanity linked to the protests. The court found Hasina guilty on three counts, concluding a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year that led to the fall of her Awami League government.

Dhaka has repeatedly requested her extradition, which New Delhi says remains under “consideration.”

The neighbouring country is currently governed by a caretaker administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

(With inputs from agencies)