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Shashank to discuss enhancement of trade as well as border demarcation
India will ask for the return of ULFA terrorists like Anup Chetia, Paresh Barua and Sanjib Deb Barman when Foreign Secretary Shashank travels to Bangladesh as part of a familiarisation tour of the region beginning from Monday.
While Shashank is not likely to flag this sensitive issue publicly, possibly because his visit is taking place on the eve of elections at home, fact is that New Delhi seems to be increasingly wary of the growing Islamisation of Bangladesh's political and social establishment as well as the rising influence of the ISI in that country. Shashank will also undertake a comprehensive review of the relationship, at which a variety of issues including a pending visit by Prime Minister Vajpayee to Dhaka, enhancement of trade under the SAARC free trade agreement agreed upon at the SAARC summit, the augmentation of transport links and a final border demarcation will be discussed.
Clearly though, despite a plethora of denials from Dhaka, New Delhi continues to be concerned about the growing nexus between Pakistan's ISI and the Bangladeshi establishment.
With the ceasefire holding between India and Pakistan across Punjab and Kashmir, sources here said the ISI had been transferring a number of its training grounds from PoK to Bangleshi territory.
On the eve of PM Vajpayee's meeting with Banglesh PM Khaleda Zia on the margins of the SAARC summit in Islamabad in January, Dhaka is said to have cracked down on the nexus between Indian insurgents, religious fundamentalists and criminals. After the summit ended, intelligence sources had picked up evidence of resumed cooperation.
Among the most blatant cases of non-cooperation with India relates to Anup Chetia, the ULFA terrorist who finished his five-year term in a Dhaka jail at the end of 2002 but managed to exchange a monetary penalty of Rs. 15,000 for continued incarceration just so that he would not be sent back to India.
In fact, the wife of Bangleshi Communication Minister Nazmul Huda, who heads a local NGO, is believed to have filed a petition in the local courts saying that Chetia should not be returned to India on the grounds that he will be subjects to severe human rights violations.
When a similar plea was made earlier
by her regarding ULFA terrorist Sanjib Deb Barman, the courts had ordered
that Burman be handed over to her. He has not been heard of since.
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