Hours ahead of his scheduled arrival in New Delhi for a three-day visit on Thursday evening, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen cancelled his trip. Momen was due to arrive by 5.20pm on Thursday.
PTI quoted sources as saying Momen's visit was cancelled "due to the situation arising out of passage of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill".
ANI quoted Momen as saying he had to cancel his planned visit to India as he had "increasing demand” at home since he had to participate in Buddijibi Debosh and Bijoy Debosh.
Momen also said Bangladesh's state minister was out of the country in Madrid and their foreign secretary was in the Hague. Buddijibi Debosh, which commemorates the memory of intellectuals who were slain by the Pakistani military, falls on December 14, while Bijoy Debosh, which celebrates formation of Bangladesh, falls on December 16.
Momen was to meet his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar, and attend two dialogues during his visit. Momen said he would send an director-general rank official for those events.
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While describing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill as an internal matter of India, Momen had said on Thursday that if Indian Home Minister Amit Shah "stayed in Bangladesh for few months, he would see exemplary communal harmony in our country".
Momen was responding to comments by Shah that minority religious groups were being persecuted in Bangladesh. Responding to data that Shah quoted in Parliament about the population of religious minorities in Bangladesh, Momi, had said, "Whoever gave them the information, it is not correct."
While the Sheikh Hasina government has maintained that the NRC and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill are internal matters of India, Dhaka has expressed concern over developments in the northeast previously.
