Lakhwant Singh Khalsa works for the Indian railway. On this, his first visit to Dhaka, the 40-year-old Sikh set out with a colleague to explore a little bit of the capital city.

As they walked across the Dhaka university campus at Ramna, Mr Khalsa stumbled upon a Gurudwara, or Sikh temple.

'I'm simply overwhelmed. I feel very happy that there's a Gurudwara in a predominantly Muslim country like Bangladesh", Mr Khalsa said with a mixture of surprise and joy .

Indeed most people, particularly visitors, express surprise, if not always tinged with joy, when they see the 500-year-old Gurudwara sitting quietly in the university. More so because there is not a single Sikh, not to mention a Sikh community, based permanently in Bangladesh.

Questions are often raised as to why is it here. At the same time there are apprehensions and, in some cases, suspicions about what goes on inside the temple.

Some contend that it is a cover for the Indian intelligence, although there has never been any hard evidence to support the idea.

Still, the authorities take no chances. A plain-clothes man, who refused to give his name, followed me into the compound the other day. Finally accepting my identity he admitted, somewhat sheepishly, that his job was to 'keep an eye" on the visitors.