Bangladesh will stand with India if it comes under attack, says home minister

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Tuesday said his country would stand beside India should it come under attack.

"Bangladesh would stand beside India if it was attacked, because the two neighbouring countries are friends and India has always provided support to Bangladesh on several occasions and in different issues," the Dhaka Tribune quoted Kamal, as saying.

"We do not share a border with Pakistan, and their land territory is 1,200 miles away from us. What they do does not affect us. We [Bangladesh] defeated them and sent them back in 1971; we don't need to think about them any further," he added.

Kamal said the unrest between India and Pakistan began when a militant attack took place on an army base at Uri in Kashmir on September 22. Following the attack, India claimed to have conducted an anti-militant drive in Pakistan on September 29, which Pakistan denied vehemently.

Since, then both the Indian and the Pakistan Armies have been on standby at the border in Kashmir.