He observed that efforts of the Indian minister to malign Bangladesh by alleging that it is involved in activities to "destabilise India" is "unfortunately not a new one".

"Bangladesh has made it clear that it does not and will not allow its territory to be used by anyone to carry out activities against another country", the spokesman said.

He said the remarks of CP Thakur are part of a "sustained campaign that is best avoided in the interest of maintaining friendly and good neighbourly relations between Bangladesh and India".

He maintained that Bangladesh wants to have friendly relations with India and is working to strengthen cooperation in a number of areas. He hoped that Indian leaders would refrain from making "irresponsible and biased" statements that would only create misunderstandings between the two countries, adversely affecting the bilateral relations.

Speculations have been rife about strained relations between the two neighbours in recent time. It began with the former Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, Mainilal Tripathy's comments at an iftar hosted by main opposition Awami League that militant groups from India were taking shelter inside Bangladeshi border.

Bangladesh wanted to lodge an official complaint, but the deputy high commissioner of India reportedly refused to accept it in person. The foreign ministry then decided to fax it directly to Delhi.

The rift became even more apparent when an Indian newspaper reported that Bangladesh's minister for Health and Family Welfare did not attend Saarc health ministers' conference after the Indian information and broadcasting minister failed to turn up at a reception in honour of Bangladesh information minister in Delhi earlier in the month.

However, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Morshed Khan recently brushed aside all these reports and denied any kind of strains in relations between the two next-door neighbours. He termed these incidents as 'not very serious issues' in bilateral relations.