Bangladesh Anarchy: PM Modi Chairs High-Level Meet After Hasina Flees To India

New Delhi: An unstable Bangladesh is bad news for neighbours India, not least because the two countries share a 4,156 km international border.

Even as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh amid violent protests and took temporary refuge at Hindon airbase, near Delhi, the Indian government got into a huddle on Monday evening to take stock of the volatile situation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) at his 7, Lok Kalyan Marg residence.

Among those who attended the meeting were Union Home minister Amit Shah, Defence minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs minister S Jaishankar, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba, Principal secretary to PM PK Mishra, Research & Analysis Wing chief Ravi Sinha and Intelligence Bureau director Tapan Deka.

Hasina, who resigned this afternoon and flew out of Dhaka in an Army aircraft with her sister and other members of the family, met National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval soon after arriving at Hindon airbase.

Hasina is likely to fly out of India, possibly to London, as soon as she gets the go-ahead from the UK.

Doval briefed PM Modi, as did Jaishankar before the crucial CCS meeting.

India are seen to be a ‘friend’ of Hasina. But in the present scenario of anarchy and instability in Bangladesh, New Delhi will have to tread a cautious path.

Bangladesh Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman announced that an interim government will take charge soon, and assured people of Bangladesh that the military will launch an investigation into the deadly crackdown on student-led protests that fuelled outrage against the Awami League-headed government.