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Hours after resigning owing to people’s violent mass protest against her regime, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flew down and landed at Hindon Air Base in Ghaziabad in a C-130 transport aircraft on Monday evening for a hop over in a journey that is destined for the UK.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Hasina who is accompanied with her sister Rehana at the Hindon Indian Air Force base. Western Air Command Chief was present there to receive former Bangladesh PM. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is believed to have briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the evolving situation in Bangladesh. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is also believed to have spoken to Jaishankar.
Hasina is scheduled to fly out to London tonight itself, said sources as she has applied for asylum in UK since Rehana is a UK citizen.
The five time PM of Bangladesh, Hasina, was given 45 minutes to resign by her Army and a safe passage that allowed her to fly in the military aircraft under the protective air cover offered by the Indian Air Force once the C-130 transporter entered into the Indian airspace, said informed sources.
The IAF fighter jets were airborne soon after the Bangladeshi C-130 aircraft entered Indian airspace and escorted them safely to Hindon Air Base, said sources. The IAF and Indian Army were prepared to meet any contingency, observed sources.
Interim government
Bangladesh Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said on Monday that an “interim government” will take over after Hasina’s resignation and requested protesters which had barged into the PM official residence, to refrain from instigating violence. General Waker-Uz-Zaman promised to hold accountable people in the government responsible for killings of protesting students.
A friend of India, Hasina, 76, was India from 1975 till about 1979. Hasina went back to her country to fill the political void caused due to the assassination of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the first President of Bangladesh, on August 15, 1975 along with other family members by a group of Bangladeshi Army personnel in a coup.
Hasina’s aircraft will be parked near the Indian Air Force’s C-17 and C-130J Super Hercules aircraft hangars at the Hindon Air base in Ghaziabad.
BSF on alert
In the view of law and order situation in neighbouring country, the Border Security Force issued a high alert along the India-Bangladesh border. Newly appointed BSF Director General Daljit Singh Chaudhary has also reached Kolkata, said a senior BSF officer.
BSF DG Chaudhary, Additional Director General, Eastern Command Ravi Gandhi, and Maninder Pratap Singh, Inspector General, South Bengal, visited Indo-Bangladesh border in North 24 Parganas district and Sunderbans area of West Bengal on Monday to review the operational preparedness and strategic deployment of Central Armed Police Force in these important border areas as migrants from Bangladesh are trying to sneak into the north-eastern States, said BSF sources.
“BSF is constantly in touch with Border Guard Bangladesh over the current situation. As of now, the situation is normal at the border. Due to the curfew in Bangladesh, there are restrictions on traffic movement at Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) along India-Bangladesh border,” says a senior BSF officer.
A dozen Bangladeshi citizens who illegally infiltrated into Tripura were arrested from different parts of the State on Sunday.
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