“Attacks on any religion are condemnable, we always condemn that. I talked to the ISKCON head of this state twice after the incident. But it is an international matter. We can’t interfere with the Centre’s decision… but we can condemn this attack,” Banerjee said.

She was speaking at the question-answer session on the Centre’s recent Waqf Amendment Bill in in the state assembly.

On Wednesday, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee said, “We can’t give a reaction to an international issue but the incident is unfortunate.”

Das was arrested for alleged “treason” on Monday at the Shah Jalal International Airport in Dhaka, where he was scheduled to board a flight to Chittagong which houses Pundarik Dham, an important centre of the Vaishnavite school of Hinduism and ISKCON.

He had been organising multiple rallies in Bangladesh to condemn alleged atrocities against minorities. Soon after the arrest, protests broke out in Barishal, Chittagong, and Dhaka’s Shahbag, where police lathi-charged protesters.

The West Bengal BJP also started demonstrations against the arrest, with party MLAs marching to the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission office and meeting officials. The state unit also announced that they will block all the Indo-Bangla borders in West Bengal next Monday.