Bangladesh move closer to finalizing extradition treaty

Bangladesh move closer to finalizing extradition treaty
Published: Saturday, Nov 19, 2011, 18:52 IST | Updated: Saturday, Nov 19, 2011, 18:53 IST
Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI

Bangladesh move closer to finalizing extradition treaty - India - DNA

India and Bangladesh today moved close to finalising the draft extradition treaty which would facilitate handing over of ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia.

"The talks on the treaty are close to final stage. The two sides will exchange the drafts and come out with their views and changes, if any, very soon," an official said at the end of the first day's meeting of the Joint Working Group here.

India is keen to have Chetia, languishing in a Bangladesh jail after having completed his sentence following his arrest in 1997 on the charge of entering that country without valid documents.

The extradition treaty, when signed, is also expected to lead to India's handing over of Riasaldar Mosleuddin who killed Bangladesh's independence architect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in August 1975. Mosleuddin is believed to be hiding in India.

The Hasina government has been seeking Mosleuddin to put him on trial in connection with Mujib assassination.

The meeting also discussed expediting the implementation of the pact on demarcation of land boundary and exchange of 162 adversely-held enclaves, which was signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka in September, the official said.

INDIA-BANGLA TWO LAST

ZCZC PRI GEN NAT.NEWDEL DEL60 INDIA-BANGLA TWO LAST

The meeting discussed the problems that had cropped up in implementing the accord that resolved a four-decade old problem which had been a major irritant in bilateral ties.

Bangladesh noted with satisfaction that the incidents of firing by Indian security forces on cross-border criminals has come down drastically over the last ten months.

Responding to persistent Bangladesh's concerns over border firing, Home Minister P Chidambaram had asked the security personnel to exercise maximum restraint while dealing with cross-border crimes like illegal migration and smuggling.

After a break tomorrow, the JWG will meet on Monday when technical experts of the two sides will take up Bangladesh's plea for making easier the procedure of securing Indian visa for Bangladeshis.

Cross-border movement of criminals and terrorists, exchange of Indian and Bangladeshi prisoners who are languishing in each other's jails after having completed their sentence, border management, illegal migration, human trafficking and narcotics smuggling also came up for discussion in today's JWG meeting.

The meeting also deliberated on exchange of information on arrested persons.

The meeting discussed how to check the growing nexus between extremist outfits of the two countries which has become major concern for New Delhi as investigations into several recent terror incidents have found that perpetrators have links in the neighbouring country.

Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Sheikh Hasina had also discussed the issue when they met on the margins of the SAARC summit in Maldives recently.