Indian police stop Delhi event featuring Awami League leader
Indian police reportedly stopped a seminar in New Delhi at the last minute after an event featuring a senior leader of Bangladesh’s banned Awami League party was scheduled to take place.
The event, titled “Europe and Asia: From Dialogue to a Partnership,” was organised by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia (FCC) on Saturday with support from the Belgium-based Hand in Hand Foundation and other partners.
Among the scheduled speakers was Salim Mahmud, the Awami League’s information and research affairs secretary and a former lawmaker from Chandpur-1. Other speakers included former Indian ambassador to Bangladesh Veena Sikri, former German ambassador to Dhaka Peter Fahrenholtz, Bangladeshi-American scientist and 1971 Liberation War veteran Nuran Nabi, and Czech politician and European Parliament member Ondrej Dostal.
The FCC said it was unable to host the programme because of “unexplained interventions by Delhi police.” The organisers said the decision was communicated at short notice and was beyond their control.
A document reportedly seen by The Wire showed that the Tilak Marg police station informed the FCC that the programme was “not allowed.”
Delhi police, however, denied intervening in the event and said FCC programmes have historically not required police permission.
The development comes less than a month after Bangladesh strongly protested a media interaction by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina at the FCC in New Delhi. Dhaka had expressed anger over her being given a platform to address journalists from India, while New Delhi said the event was privately organised and did not represent the government’s position.
The latest cancellation has also drawn attention because of the participation of a senior Awami League figure. The party was banned in Bangladesh following the political upheaval of August 2024.
An FCC source told ThePrint that the cancellation may have been linked to the earlier controversy surrounding Hasina’s appearance. However, AFM Golam Zilani, secretary general of the Hand in Hand Foundation, rejected the suggestion that the event was connected to Bangladesh, saying it was focused on Europe-Asia relations.
The foundation has previously organised events involving Awami League representatives, including programmes related to the Rohingya crisis and political developments in South Asia.
The incident comes at a sensitive time in Bangladesh-India relations and could further complicate diplomatic efforts between the two countries.
