Muhammad Yunus sparks outrage after gifting Pakistani General a book showing India’s northeast as part of Bangladesh. Photo: X.
Pakistan and Bangladesh have improved ties since the fall of Sheikh Hasina government in Dhaka in 2024. Muhammad Yunus, who took the charge of interim head, has since made several controversial remarks targeting India. In a recent controversy, Yunus has provoked India with a controversial map that misrepresents India’s northeastern region.
During a meeting in Dhaka over the weekend, Yunus met with Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairperson, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza. The meeting is another step marking the thaw in the relations between the two countries. The two countries have a history of fraught relations since 1971, the year when Bangladesh was carved out of Pakistan with India’s help.
On Sunday, Yunus shared images of the meeting on social media platform X. Among the photos was one showing the interim leader gifting Mirza a book titled “Art of Triumph.” The book’s cover depicted a distorted map of Bangladesh, incorporating India’s seven northeastern states, including Assam, as part of Bangladesh’s territory.
The image quickly went viral, sparking outrage online. Critics accused Yunus of endorsing the idea of a so-called “Greater Bangladesh,” a concept promoted by radical Islamist groups seeking to expand the country’s borders into India’s northeast.
Social media users condemned the move, accusing Yunus of “crossing diplomatic boundaries” and interfering in India’s sovereign domain. Despite the uproar, India’s Ministry of External Affairs has not yet issued an official response to the controversy.
This is not the first time that Yunus has made a controversial statement related to India. In April 2024, during his first visit to China, the Nobel laureate described Bangladesh as the “only guardian of the ocean” for the region, arguing that India’s northeast was “landlocked.”
“The seven states of India, the eastern part of India… they are a landlocked country. They have no way to reach out to the ocean,” Yunus told Chinese officials.
“We are the only guardian of the ocean for all this region. So this opens up a huge possibility. So this could be an extension of the Chinese economy,” he added.
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Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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