ULFA?leader Anup Chetia likely to be deported first under the pact
The Bangladeshi and Indian governments are planning to execute the agreement on “Transfer of Sentenced Persons”, by December, by exchanging some
prisoners lodged in each other’s prisons, home ministry sources said. The agreement was signed during Indian prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s September 2011 visit to
Dhaka.
According to home ministry officials, Bangladesh is likely to hand over the general secretary of United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), Anup Chetia, and others
members of the outfit, to India, under the agreement. The ULFA leader, whose prison term had ended in 2003, is now lodged in a jail here.
Additional secretary (political) Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed told The Independent that the authorities of both countries are finalising the names of prisoners, including top
terrorists and extremist leaders, to be exchanged.
“The final lists would be handed over to the authorities of both countries, for transfer of the prisoners. We can say that the agreement would be executed any time,”
Ahmed said. He added that some of the listed prisoners had applied to the jail authorities, for transferring them to their own country.
“As per the agreement, we will receive the listed Bangladeshi prisoners from the Indian authorities, at the border, and they would be forwarded to our jails,” he said.
Sources said the Indian authorities have sent the names of 576 Bangladeshi prisoners, who are incarcerated in different jails in India. Likewise, Bangladeshi
authorities have sent the names of over 500 Indian prisoners lodged in jails here.
Sources said at least 1,000 Bangladeshi citizens, including some top terrorists such as Subrata Bain
and Sajjad Hossain, are imprisoned in India. It is also learnt that two fugitive killers of Bangabandhu, Capt.
(dismissed) Mazed and Risaldar
(dismissed) Muslehuddin, are hiding in India. Dhaka has urged New Delhi to hand over the two fugitives after arresting them.
On the other hand, the Indian government has requested to extradite Anup Chetia, who was arrested
in Dhaka on December 21, 1997,
on charges of violating the Foreigners’ Act and the Passports Act here. He was sentenced to seven years in jail, by a Dhaka court.
Earlier, Bangladesh had arrested ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and handed him over to the Indian authorities.
-With The Independent input
