NEW DELHI: Over a month after he was arrested in Bangladesh for admitting that he was part of a mob that allegedly killed a Hindu sub-inspector and burnt down a police station in Bangladesh during the 2024 uprising on August 5, controversial student leader from the neighbouring country has reached India.
In a video that has gone viral on social media on Tuesday, the leader was spotted sitting inside the VFS Global Application Centre located at New Delhi’s KG Marg during the process of document submission to travel to a European country, sources have told TDG.
Speaking to TDG, an official working at the application centre confirmed that the video was indeed shot at the KG Marg application centre of the visa service provider.
A highly-placed source told TDG that Mahdi Hasan has got a valid visa from the Indian High Commission office in Dhaka and is trying to get a visa for a European country so that he can travel to that country.
“Hasan got a valid visa to travel to India. He has arrived in India via the land route after getting the visa from the Indian High Commission in Dhaka. He is trying to flee to Portugal and has applied for the same at the visa application centre in New Delhi. This is because Bangladesh has undergone a transfer of power and he fears action for his deeds,” said the source.
Bangladeshi nationals often utilize India as a transit hub to get visas to travel to a third country. However, recent security concerns and diplomatic tensions have led to significant, sometimes indefinite, suspensions of Indian visa services in Bangladesh and restrictions on travel, affecting students, medical tourists, and travellers.
Following political instability in August 2024, India restricted visa services, with many applications in Dhaka suspended, causing a backlog and halting travel.
Speaking to TDG from Bangladesh, a Bangladeshi national alleged that while it has become difficult for ordinary Bangladeshi citizens to get visas to travel to India and it was mostly the medical visas that are being granted to Bangladeshi citizens, it was “disheartening to see that Hasan managed to get a visa.”
“Due to the tensions prevailing between India and Bangladesh, it has become very difficult for ordinary Bangladeshi citizens to get a visa to travel to India even for genuine concerns but people with political connections and money power are able to get visas easily. This is disheartening as several others who have genuinely applied for visas have failed to get visas. While the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh grants visas for several purposes including medical visas, student visas, entry visas, business visas, special visas, etc. Nowadays, mostly medical visas are only being granted but that a tainted leader has got a visa is very concerning,” he said.
Many countries don’t have a consulate or embassy in Bangladesh while some countries have withdrawn their staff from Bangladesh. If a Bangladeshi citizen wants to travel to any such country, he or she has to apply for a visa online and has to come to the consulate/embassy of that country located in India where the applicant has to submit his/her documents to get the visa for that country.
As the latest video went viral on Tuesday, social media users questioned how Hasan was able to get a visa to travel to India.
“Self-proclaimed police killer and SAD leader Mahdi is now in Delhi. For the past seventeen months, these same extremists have spent their days chanting anti-India slogans across Bangladesh. Now, he’s reportedly trying to use Indian soil as a transit route to flee to Europe. Just two hours ago, he was seen at the VFS Global visa application centre, submitting his biometrics for an Indian visa. If this is accurate, Indian authorities should act immediately and take this individual into custody,” Asifur Rahman Chowdhury posted on X while sharing the video on Tuesday.
TDG spoke to VK Gokul, First Secretary (Political & Press) at the High Indian Commission in Dhaka to check the nature of the visa granted to Hasan.
Gokul said that he would get the video checked but since it only shows Hasan’s back, it may take time to confirm.
Speaking to TDG, a Delhi Police officer said that if Hasan has been issued a valid visa by the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh, the police could do little about it.
Who is Mahdi Hasan? In January this year, Hasan, the member secretary of the Student Against Discrimination (SAD)’s Habiganj district unit was captured in a video in which he had admitted that he was amongst those who had burnt a police station in Bangladesh and a Hindu sub-inspector.
“We burnt down the Banlachong police station. We burnt down sub-inspector SI Santosh. Let me introduce myself, I was the chief coordinator of Habiganj district in this movement. I am the current secretary of the anti-discrimination Student Movement of Habiganj district,” Hasan had told a police officers of the Shayestaganj police station in Habiganj where he had gone along with his supporters to demand the release of a student leader Enamul Hasan Noyon on January 2, according to Bangladeshi media.
Bangladeshi media had reported that the incident had occurred after police detained Noyon and quoted Hasan as also saying, “We formed this government. Yet, you are picking up our boys. And now you are bargaining.”
“Now I want to know with what audacity he [Noyon] was picked up,” Hasan was further quoted as telling the officer-in-charge while pressing for Noyon’s release.
However, a video of the conversation had later gone viral on social media and had drawn criticism from Indian and Bangladeshi netizens too.
Facing flak, the SAD had issued a show-cause notice to Hasan, asking him to refrain from all organisational activities until further notice. In the wake of the events, the SAD’s central committee had said that the comments were inconsistent with the organisation’s ideals and had harmed its public image and that Mahdi Hasan had been asked to provide a written explanation within 24 hours, through the organisational office, to SAD Central President Rifat Rashid, explaining why permanent disciplinary action should not be taken against him.
Soon after the uproar, Hasan had uploaded a video on his Facebook page claiming that what he said in the viral video was a “slip of tongue” and that he didn’t want to talk like that. But he was arrested on January 3 only to be released hours later. Following his arrest, scores of student leaders gathered outside the Shayestaganj police station where Hasan had been kept in police custody. However, he was granted bail by a local court within 14 hours.
Expressing concern over the swift detention and grant of bail to Hasan, the Awami League had termed the incidents as “deeply revealing and disturbing.”