Bangladesh will take back only those who may have recently gone to India, foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has said.
" Those who have been living in India for 30 or 40 years are Indians. It will not be possible for us to accept them.... We can take back those who might have gone recently." he said.
In an exclusive interview with India's news magazine The Week, the foreign minister also expressed strong hopes about signing the Teesta treaty, saying it is now 'in a very advanced stage'.
During the interview, Momen was quite critical of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which he said could weaken India's secular character.
He also challenged India's home minister Amit Shah's allegation that minorities faced persecution in Bangladesh.
Momen clarified that his Delhi trip was cancelled because of scheduling problems and that the CAA was India's internal issue.
India recently rolled out the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
It sparked a fear that those left off the citizens' list might be pushed back into Bangladesh for this reason that many politicians in the Indian state claim that those left off the list were from Bangladesh.
Fuelling the fear, some incidents of pushbacks from India have already taken place, which local media reported.
On the heels of rolling out the NRC in Assam, India's parliament amended a law offering citizenship to Non-Muslims, which many say is part of the government ploy to marginalise the Muslims.
The citizenship law amendment triggered widespread protests in India, even causing concerns among many people in Bangladesh.
