For decades, Muslim-majority Bangladesh and Hindu-majority India enjoyed close ties.
But earlier this year, the relationship began to fray.
What started as peaceful student protests against civil service job quotas morphed into a nationwide movement to force out Bangladesh's authoritarian prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
The protests, which have been described as the "world's first Gen Z revolution", resulted in her fleeing in a helicopter — and into exile in Delhi.
In the following months, the arrest of a revered Hindu leader in Bangladesh and a mob attack on a consulate in India have fuelled anger between the two countries.
Now, the relationship between these South Asian giants is at a low ebb and religious tensions are high.
'Violence is our enemy'
Under the heavy-handed rule of 'iron lady' Sheikh Hasina, India had long considered Bangladesh a more stable partner than many of its other South Asian neighbours.
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have all experienced recent political and economic upheaval.
But after Ms Hasina's 15-year reign came to an abrupt end in August, Bangladesh has had an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus — a long-time opponent of Ms Hasina.
Hindus make up almost 10 per cent of Bangladesh's 174 million people — and many of them had historically supported Ms Hasina's secular-leaning Awami League.
Once Ms Hasina was booted from power, rioters targeted symbols of the Awami League and, in some cases, Hindus.
Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly reported in August that in several areas of Bangladesh members of the Hindu community "were violently attacked, their homes torched, temples vandalised, and shops looted".
At the time, Mr Yunus condemned "senseless violence" against minorities — threatening to resign if the attacks did not cease.
"Violence is our enemy," he said.
"Please don't create more enemies. Be calm and get ready to build the country."
Still, India has accused Mr Yunus's government of not doing enough to protect Hindus from attacks.
From exile in India, Ms Hasina has claimed Mr Yunus is responsible for "genocide" against minorities.
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in September called upon the Indian armed forces to be prepared for the "unexpected" and to watch the situation in neighbouring countries — citing ongoing conflicts between Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Gaza and unstable situation in Bangladesh.
But it was the arrest of a Hindu monk in Bangladesh for sedition in late November that ignited a major diplomatic flare-up between Dhaka and Delhi.
'A husband-wife relationship'
Hindu leader Krishna Das Prahbu was arrested for allegedly disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag at a rally in October.
But supporters believe he was targeted because he had been vocal about his concerns over attacks against Hindus in his country.
Mr Yunus reportedly told an Indian news agency that claims of violence against Hindus were "exaggerated", which fanned anger in India.
Meanwhile, hardline Hindu groups in India and hardline Muslim groups in Bangladesh have staged ongoing protests against the other nation, and the two governments — who long enjoyed warm relations — are in damage control.
But experts say discontent has been simmering long before the fall of the Hasina government.
"Bangladeshi society always has this feeling that India interferes too much in Bangladesh's affairs," said Amit Ranjan, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore's Institute of South Asian Studies.
"They also have this feeling that Hasina's authoritarian rule was supported by the Indian establishment," he said.
Khandakar Tahmid Rejwan, a researcher with the Bangladesh Peace Observatory, said India's relations with Bangladesh had only been warm with the "Awami regime of Hasina, not with the common people".
"Here in Bangladesh, we used to mock the Bangladesh-India bilateral relationship as a husband-wife relationship."
Meanwhile, Indian Hindu nationalists have burned effigies of Mr Yunus and stamped on Bangladeshi flags — images that have exacerbated anger at India in Bangladesh.
And in early December some 50 protesters broke into the Bangladeshi consulate in the north-eastern Indian city of Agartala.
Indian authorities arrested seven protesters and labelled the incident "deeply regrettable".
Earlier this month Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri travelled to Dhaka to meet Mr Yunus and lower the temperature — the highest-level visit between the two countries since Ms Hasina fled to Delhi in August.
The question of extradition
Mr Yunus has said Bangladesh's next elections will be held in late 2025 or early 2026.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which was instrumental in ousting Ms Hasina, could well win government.
Shivani Gayakwad, a senior analyst at defence intelligence agency Janes, said the BNP had strengthened its pro-China stance since the formation of the interim administration.
"The prospect of BNP, with a pro-China and pro-Islamist stance, coming to power would very likely challenge India-Bangladesh relations," Ms Gayakwad said.
More importantly, a Bangladeshi tribunal in October issued a warrant for Ms Hasina's arrest for crimes against humanity among other charges.
For Mr Rejwan at the Bangladesh Peace Observatory, any attempt to repatriate Ms Hasina would be met with resistance by her friends in both India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Indian National Congress.
"India will also want the Awami League to rehabilitate, regroup and come back to mainstream politics in Bangladesh," he said.
Yet the future of the bilateral relationship is highly dependent on whether the Indian government is prepared to extradite her.
After seven years in exile in Australia, Bangladeshi academic and human rights activist Mubashar Hasan returned to the country of his birth in the wake of Ms Hasina's fall.
Dr Hasan told ABC's The World that if India refused to extradite her, "we would see the rise of anti-Indian sentiment domestically" in Bangladesh.
"They equate the previous autocratic regime, which they call fascist, [with support] from the Indian government."
