Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has described as “internal matters” of India the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) but at the same time said the act was “not necessary”.

“We don’t understand why (the Indian government) did it. It was not necessary,” Hasina told Gulf News in an interview, referring to India’s new citizenship law.

Her comments came weeks after Bangladesh foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen said the CAA and the NRC were India’s “internal issues” but voiced concern that any “uncertainty” in the country was likely to affect its neighbours.

Bangladesh has denied any migration to India because of religious persecution, the newspaper said.

Hasina, who is in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, also said that there was no recorded reverse migration from India. “No, there is no reverse migration from India. But within India, people are facing many problems,” she said.

“(Still), it is an internal affair,” Hasina said. She said the relationship between Bangladesh and India was currently at its best.