United News of Bangladesh

Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain on Thursday (January 08, 2026) confirmed that they have asked its three key diplomatic missions in India to keep their visa sections closed for a time being on security grounds. “What I have done is that I have asked our three missions to keep their visa sections closed for the time being. It’s a security issue,” he said while responding to a question at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Though he did not mention the names of the missions, a diplomatic source said the three missions are Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, Deputy High Commission in Kolkata and Bangladesh Assistant High Commission Agartala. There are Bangladesh Missions stationed in Mumbai and Chennai, too. Read more: Delhi summons Bangladesh envoy amid growing tensions Responding to a question on cricketers’ safety issue, the Foreign Adviser said he fully supports what Sports Adviser Asif Nazrul had said. Sports Adviser Asif Nazrul reaffirmed on Wednesday that Bangladesh will not travel to India for the upcoming T20 World Cup, reiterating the nation’s demand to have their matches relocated to co-host Sri Lanka. Speaking to the media following a meeting with directors of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), Asif Nazrul said while the nation is eager to participate it cannot be at the expense of national dignity or player safety. “We have discussed the situation. The Bangladesh team played hard and fought to qualify for the T20 World Cup, and as a cricket-crazy nation, we certainly want to play in the World Cup,” he said. “We will certainly play outside India,” said Foreign Adviser Hossain. Asked about the impact of this in bilateral relations, the Foreign Adviser said this issue came afresh though at various times various issues came and each issue will have negative impacts to some extent. Read more: Bangladesh voices concern to India over attacks on missions Talking about keeping business relations unhurt, the Adviser said if they find their interest in purchasing rice at a cheaper price, the business people will go for that. Asked about Bangladesh’s ‘potential interest’ in procuring the JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft from Pakistan, the Foreign Adviser said, “I can’t tell about this today. Talks are underway. You will know once things are finalised.”

Bangladesh has suspended all visa and consular services from its Missions in New Delhi and Agartala. “Due to unavoidable circumstances, all consular & visa services from the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi are temporarily suspended until further notice,” said the High Commission in its notice, adding, “Any inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted.” Bangladesh Assistant High Commission Agartala also issued a similar notice. “This is to inform all concerned that due to unavoidable circumstances all visa and consular services at the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agartala will remain closed from tomorrow, 23 December 2025, until further notice.” Keeping humanitarian needs in mind and despite the evolving security situation, the High Commission of India continues to operate the visa centers at Dhaka, Khulna, Sylhet and Rajshahi, said officials at the Indian Visa Application Centre.  Read more: Offline Indian visa services remain suspended in Khulna High Commissioner Pranay Verma visited the Indian Visa Application Center (IVAC) at the Jamuna Future Park on Monday to take stock of the functioning of the visa services.  He also interacted with visa applicants, many of whom were applying for medical visas to go to India for treatment. Given the "serious threats" last week at the Indian High Commission and its installations in Bangladesh, HCI had to shut down the operations at IVAC, JFP for a day last week, officials at IVAC said.  It was later opened and all the applicants whose appointment slots fell on that day were given an early alternative slot. Several people who apply for visas are travelling to India for treatment of serious medical conditions.  The IVAC at Chittagong is temporarily shut down following the mob attack at the entrance of AHCI Chittagong in the night of 18-19 December during which stone pelting and threats to break the entrance created serious insecurities for the AHC and other officials who live inside the same premises. Read more: Pranay Verma visits Indian visa centre in Dhaka During the visit of HC to IVAC, IVAC officials flagged the problems of large amounts of fake documents being submitted and also the disruption created by middlemen and touts who try to hack into visa servers and create artificial traffic depriving common visa applicants from genuine slots.  The High Commissioner assured to raise the concerns with relevant authorities in Bangladesh.