Restrictions on Indian tourists, major restrictions in Bangladesh's visa policy

There is new bad news for Indian citizens traveling to Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi consulates in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai have 'limited' the issuance of tourist visas for Indian tourists. As a result, many Indian citizens interested in coming to Bangladesh for normal tourism purposes are facing uncertainty.

It is learned that visa issuance activities were stopped earlier from the Bangladeshi embassy in Delhi and the Assistant High Commissioner's office in Agartala. According to the BBC report, currently only the Assistant High Commissioner's office in Guwahati is issuing visas to Indian citizens on a limited basis.

Although no official notification has been issued in this regard yet, responsible sources at the Bangladesh consulate in Kolkata have confirmed that tourist visa issuance activities have been restricted from Wednesday. Officials said that despite the restrictions on tourist visas, visa issuance activities for other categories including commercial visas will continue.

The recent political context is believed to have played an important role behind this decision. After the Sheikh Hasina government was ousted from power on August 5, 2024 through a popular uprising, four Indian visa centers in Bangladesh were vandalized. At the same time, protests were also held in front of the Indian visa center in Dhaka, which affected the visa activities of the two countries.

Due to this situation, the Indian government initially closed all types of visa activities for a few days. Although the visa centers were later reopened, India announced that other visas, including tourist visas, will not be issued to Bangladeshis for the time being except for medical visas and some urgent needs.

Now, that decision has taken a more stringent shape. According to the latest information, Indian tourist visas for Bangladeshis are completely closed. As a counter-effect, analysts believe that Bangladesh has also imposed restrictions on issuing tourist visas to Indian citizens.

Overall, it is feared that this limitation in visa activities between the two neighboring countries may have a negative impact on general travelers, the tourism sector, and bilateral people-to-people contacts.