Dhaka urges India to arrest, deport criminals

By Saleem Samad

DHAKA: In an expected seesaw diplomacy, Bangladesh on Sunday urged India to arrest and deport the criminals who had crossed over to the neighbouring country in the wake of operation against criminals.

Foreign Secretary Shamser Mobin Chaudhry handed over a ‘note verbal’ to Indian High Commissioner ML Tripathy when the diplomat was summoned to the Foreign Ministry Sunday afternoon.

Recently, Indian Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani was quoted as saying that Pakistan’s intelligence service, ISI and Al Qaeda have increased their activities inside Bangladesh since the government of Begum Khaleda Zia swept into power in October last year. Bangladesh has strongly protested against recent remarks of Advani and said India was harbouring underworld dons in neighbouring Indian states of West Bengal, specially in Kolkatta. Chaudhry requested assistance of the Indian government for increased vigilance at the border against such trespass

The High Commissioner assured the foreign secretary that India would fully cooperate with Bangladesh authorities in rounding up Bangladeshi ‘criminals’ so that they could be brought to justice.

Tripathy requested for the names and particulars of the suspected offenders who have reportedly crossed over to India recently so that appropriate action could be taken to apprehend and return them to Bangladesh. Since Bangladesh army was already taking action against criminals, it should be instructed by the Bangladesh government to take steps so they could not enter into India, he said.

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