India summons Bangladesh envoy after Dhaka’s objection to border fencing

A day after Bangladesh called in a top Indian diplomat and expressed its concerns over the prevailing situation on the border, New Delhi summoned the Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner over the issue on Monday.

A video shared on X by news agency ANI showed Md. Nural Islam leaving the South Block after he was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs.

On Sunday, Dhaka called in Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma to the Foreign Ministry and expressed its “deep concerns” over New Delhi’s border fencing project.

Bangladesh has maintained that the border fencing was an "unauthorised attempt" and said it undermined the spirit of ‘cooperation’ between the two countries.

"Foreign Secretary Ambassador Md. Jashim Uddin today expressed deep concern of Government of Bangladesh to the High Commissioner of India Pranay Verma at his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the recent activities of the Border Security Force (BSF) of India along the Bangladesh-India Border," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It’s not immediately clear whether Verma was summoned by the foreign office or it was a scheduled meeting. Though the state-run news agency BSS claimed that the Indian diplomat was summoned, the foreign ministry’s press statement stopped short of using that word.

Dhaka had alleged that India was trying to construct fences at five locations along the Indo-Bangla border, violating a bilateral agreement.

“Such activities particularly the unauthorised attempt to construct barbed wire fencing and the related operational actions by BSF, have caused tensions and disturbances along the border," it said.