Bangladesh moving towards restoring visa for Indian nationals: Diplomatic sources

Days after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led (BNP) government took charge after scoring a major electoral win, Bangladesh is moving towards normalising visa facilities for Indian visitors, a diplomatic source has confirmed to The Hindu. However, a formal notification in this regard is yet to be issued by Bangladesh.

Bangladesh had halted issuing of visas in December 2025 when Indian missions faced protest and several incidents of stone pelting targeting Indian missions and visa centres were reported in Bangladesh. Subsequently, protests were held in India targeting Bangladesh’s High Commission in New Delhi as well as visa centres in West Bengal. Against this backdrop, the High Commission of Bangladesh had paused visa issuance and issued a public notice in this regard.

Visa had been one of the major areas that faced disruption with the overthrow of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh in July-August 2024. As per diplomatic sources, India used to issue more than eight thousand daily visas for Bangladesh through multiple Indian visa centres in Bangladesh before the overthrow of the Hasina regime. However, following the major disruption of July-August 2024, Indian Visa Application Centres opened sporadically because of security threats. As per diplomatic sources, India isssued around 3,000 medical and student visas and at the time of the swearing-in of BNP’s Chairman Tariq Rahman who became the new Prime Minister of Bangladesh on February 17, 2026.

The visa-related statements came soon after the Ministry of External Affairs on Friday (February 20, 2026) expressed willingness to take the bilateral relation forward. Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Randhir Jaiswal had said in Friday’s weekly briefing, “Building on the warm and historic ties between the two countries, India looks forward to further strengthening our multifaced bilateral ties with Bangladesh.”