Author: Diptosh Majumdar
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: November 2, 2004
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=58142
With its two state governments in
Tripura and West Bengal having to contend with ''terror from across the
border'', the Left leaders today told visiting Bangladesh Foreign Minister
M Morshed Khan that his country would have ''to dismantle camps and not
promote these separatist groups or anti-India elements at all''.
Of late, the Left has been demanding
that the UPA government take up the issue of ''export of terror'' strongly
with Bangladesh. This afternoon, when CPI and CPM leaders were informed
that the Bangladesh Foreign Minister was here and wished to meet them,
they used the opportunity to convey their message forcefully.
CPM's senior politburo member, Prakash
Karat, who was part of the Left leaders whom Khan met at the CPI headquarters
in Ajoy Bhavan this evening, said: ''We have told him that the Left was
committed to maintaining good relations with Bangladesh, but there were
a few major irritants that came in the way.''
Explained CPI general secretary,
A B Bardhan: ''We told them they would have to ensure that no terrorist
group was nurtured in the country.''
The Left's decision to convery their
hard stand on the ''export of terror'' is not a surprise though. West Bengal
CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had raised the issue repeatedly with the previous
NDA governement, especially former deputy PM L K Advani.
Bhattacharjee has also informed
UPA's Home Minister Shivraj Patil about the border scenario and the terror
situation in West Bengal during his trip to the Delhi last weekend.
The Left's problems have been compounded
by Tripura CM Manik Sarkar joining forces with Bhattacharjee. The Tripura
Left has to deal with the tribal extremists groups, especially outfits
like All Tripura Tiger Force or National Liberation Front of Tripura. Even
before this meeting, the Left had handed over a list of Tripura terrorists
supposedly hiding across the border in Bangladesh.
According to some of the Left leaders,
the Bangladesh minister read out a list of 25 suspected terrorists whom
they have rounded up over the past few days. Left leaders said the Minister
insisted that Paresh Barua of ULFA or Ajay Debbarma of ATTF had no permanenty
camp in Bangladesh.
When asked for his comments, the
Bangladesh Foreign Minister said the talks were held in ''an excellent''
atmosphere. He said that all problems between the countries could be sorted
out in a spirit of cooperation.
In fact, the CPM Central Committee
had discussed the Bangladesh issue in detail this weekend. Karat said:
''The ULFA, NDFB and the Tripura extremist outfits like the NLFT and ATTF
are operating mainly from camps based in Bangladesh. Some of the groups
are there in Myanmar also. The Bangladesh government has been consistently
denying the existence of the camps and the activities of the leaders of
these groups from the territory of Bangladesh.''
The CPM statement said: ''The Central
Government must take up the matter with the Bangladesh government in a
manner, which makes it aware that it cannot evade the issue of sanctuary
for the terrorist groups any longer.''
