Author: Bureau Report
Publication: Zeenews.com
Date: September 12, 2009
URL: http://www.zeenews.com/news562826.html
Bangladesh has said that top ULFA leader Anup
Chetia, now in prison here, cannot be extradited to India as demanded by New
Delhi as the proposed bilateral deal for exchange of prisoners covers only
those who are serving jail terms.
However, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has made
it clear that Dhaka will not allow its soil to be used for anti-India activities.
Her remarks are significant as India has said several times that many of the
top ULFA leaders including its Commander-in-Chief Paresh Baruah are holed
up in Bangladesh.
Chetia, who was arrested in 1997 for intruding
into Bangladesh, has completed his term, the Daily Star said.
"To my knowledge, he (Chetia) completed
his term and therefore will not come under the purview of the treaty,"
Moni told newsmen yesterday after her return from India.
Sources said Chetia continues to be held in
prison by authorities for "security reasons". India and Bangladesh
do not have an extradition treaty currently.
A senior Foreign Ministry official today said
the proposed treaty would not help extradition of separatist United Liberation
of Asom general secretary Chetia.
"As she (Dipu Moni) said yesterday, the
proposed treaty is meant for Bangladeshi and Indian prisoners serving terms
currently in each other's jails," he said.
But the deal has a rider, that it is only
if the prisoners want to serve the remaining terms of their imprisonments
in jails in their own countries, that the repatriation can take place.
Moni had told newsmen replying to a question
that there was no scope under the deal, expected to be signed during Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina's forthcoming India visit, to handover the ULFA leader
to New Delhi authorities.
Moreover, she said jailed Indian or Bangladeshi
prisoner detained in each other's country would have to apply for extradition
to serve the rest of their term in their own country under the treaty.
Police had arrested Chetia from a Dhaka residence
where he was living during the Awami League's previous 1996-2001 regime and
subsequently served a jail term here for entering the country with fake documents.
Officials said he was still in a jail for
"security reasons" after the expiry of his term as he preferred
to stay back in Bangladesh fearing reprisals in his country.
Bangladesh and India do not have an extradition
treaty for exchange of wanted persons but security agencies exchanged several
wanted gangsters and "criminals" in the past two years as friendly
gestures.
Dhaka, however, reiterated its stand during
Moni's India visit that it would not allow its territory to be used by these
militants or separatist outfits.
