Bangladeshi tourists banned from restaurants, hotels in Tripura amid reported attacks on Hindu minorities

Bangladeshi tourists travelling to Tripura will not be able to book hotels or enjoy meals at restaurants after the All Tripura Hotel and Restaurant Owners’ Association announced a temporary ban on their entry into hotels and food outlets in the state.

The top association of the travel sector in the northeast released a statement on Monday, December 2, temporarily banning Bangladeshi tourists from entering hotels and restaurants.

After the announcement, association members have been actively putting up posters at the hotel front desks and restaurants to spread the word.

“We are putting up posters at hotel front desks barring Bangladeshi nationals from entering the hotel premises, and we have ramped up our security checks," Bhaskar Chakraborty, secretary of the association, told News18.

Rally in Tripura's Agartala demanding ISKCON leader's release

Amid growing concerns around ISKCON leader Chinmoy Prabhu's detention in Bangladesh on sedition charges, thousands of people took out a massive rally in Tripura's capital Agartala on Monday. 

The rally was taken out under the banner of Hindu Sangharsh Samity, linked to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The situation grew tense when over 50 protesters reportedly entered the premises of the Bangladeshi mission in Agartala, reported PTI.

Speaking to reporters, VHP's Tripura chapter secretary Sankar Roy said, “Since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, attacks are being carried out on Hindu temples and Hindu houses and businesses are being looted in Bangladesh.”

Two more ISKCON priests arrested 

India-Bangladesh diplomatic ties have worsened over the past few days due to a government crackdown on ISKCON leaders. Bangladesh police detained former ISKCON leader Chinmoy Krishna Das. Over the past few days, two more ISKCON leaders have been arrested, its vice president Radharamn Das told PTI on Saturday, November 30.

“I have received information that two more ISKCON monks have been arrested by police in Bangladesh,” Radharamn Das told PTI.

“In the meantime, bad news has come: two devotees who went with prasad for Chinmaya Prabhu were arrested on their way back to the temple, and Chinmaya prabhu's secretary is also missing. Please pray for them,” Radharamn wrote in a post on X.

Chinmoy Das detention in Bangladesh

Former ISKCON leader Chinmoy Das was a vocal advocate of Hindu rights in Bangladesh. A spokesperson for Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, he wasarrested at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on November 25 while heading to Chattogram to attend a rally. He was denied bail and sent to jail on November 26, Tuesday, by the Chattogram Sixth Metropolitan Magistrate Court.