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Indo-Bangladesh talks on fighting terrorism |
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India’s efforts to seek the cooperation of Bangladesh in the fight against terrorism appears to be bearing fruit. At the just-ended Home Secretaries’ level talks, the two countries agreed not to allow their territories to be used for spreading terrorism or any activity inimical to each other’s interests. They will soon initiate action against the militant and insurgent groups indulging in the smuggling of arms, ammunition and fake currency notes.
The two-day talks led by India’s Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and his Bangladesh counterpart, Abdul Karim, ended in Dhaka on August 31. India and Bangladesh agreed to take action against the insurgent outfits and their leaders on the basis of real time and actionable information to be exchanged between the nodal points.
A joint Press release issued at the end of the meeting said the Indian side sought Dhaka’s cooperation to trace the presence of Indian insurgent groups allegedly based in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Home Secretary in turn sought New Delhi’s cooperation to take preventive measures against anti-Bangladesh outfits based in India. Both sides agreed that the verification process of released prisoners of one country held in the prison of the other country should be expedited and modalities in this respect would be worked out.
Asked whether some ULFA leaders who are reportedly in Bangladeshi jails would come under the process, both the Home Secretaries told a joint Press conference that, they were not considering individuals but wanted to set up a mechanism to expedite the process.
The Bangladesh side was non-committal on an Indian proposal for the construction of border fence. The meeting also did not make any precise progress on the demarcation of 6.5 kilometres of the border between the two countries. The two sides agreed to convene a meeting of the Joint Boundary Working Group at an early date to discuss all outstanding boundary related issues.
Bangladesh meanwhile has expressed interest in holding talks with India and Myanmar this month to resolve the outstanding maritime boundary disputes as a UN set deadline for lodging maritime claims is set to expire in the next three years. A Foreign Ministry statement in Dhaka said an eight-member team has gone to Myanmar and similar talks will be held with India in the third week of this month in Dhaka after a lapse of 28 years to discuss the boundary issues.
Welcoming the decision at the Home Secretaries’ talks not to allow their territories to be used for spreading terrorism or any activity inimical to each other’s interests, political observers note that in the past, Bangladesh had been used by Pakistan’s ISI-supported terrorist outfits like the Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami [HuJI] to cause havoc in India. The HUJI is believed to have engineered the recent Jaipur blasts in which 60 people were killed. The insurgent groups active in India’s Northeast have also been using Bangladeshi territory to carry on their nefarious activities.
It may be recalled that the move for an understanding on fighting terrorism began with the New Delhi visit of the Bangladesh Army Chief, Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed, a few months ago. The visit of Gen. Ahmed, the real power behind the caretaker Government, was followed by Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon’s talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart in Dhaka. After that, the Indian Army Chief, Gen. Deepak Kapoor, spent three days in Dhaka discussing initiatives to deepen the cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries. Gen. Kapoor’s visit was significant in the sense that the India-Bangladesh border has been tension-ridden for a long time. The two countries have now agreed to hold joint patrolling of the border to ensure that it is free from any major incident involving each other’s armed forces.
Paswan demands citizenship for illegal Bangladeshis
The Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party President, Ram Vilas Paswan, has landed in a soup for demanding citizenship to Bangladeshis living illegally in India. Paswan made the remarks at a party rally at Pushkar in Rajasthan on Aug 31.
The BJP has trained its guns at the LJP President for his new flutter. “No country in the world provides shelter to intruders but shows them the door, leave alone granting them citizenship”, said BJP spokesman, Prakash Javadekar. He demanded the Prime Minister’s intervention for suitable action against his Cabinet colleague.
The Congress Party has kept away from Paswan’s demand. Asked if the Congress Party endorsed the views of its partner in the UPA Government, party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan distanced the Congress from Paswan. She said, “He is not a member of our party”.
Political observers have criticized Paswan for his demand to give illegal Bangladeshi immigrants citizenship out of his lust for their votes. They say the compulsions of vote bank politics have made him publicly support views that really amount to treason and he should be taken to task by the Home Ministry for making a mockery of pressing security concerns for purely selfish reasons. They say, at a time when intelligence agencies have detected the complicity of Bangladeshi operatives in recent terrorist attacks, including bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Paswan needs to apologise to the nation for advocating citizenship for the huge number of Bangladeshis in India who are largely low-end migrants, often involved in sex-trafficking, robberies, smuggling and other crimes. Many of them have been found by investigators as the vital local links for Jehadi groups such as the Harkatul-Jihad-al-Islam.
Intelligence sources are reported to have told an English daily [July 30, 2008] that the arc of terror in India has grown because Bangladeshi migrants have spread throughout the country. In the early 1980s, they were limited to the border districts of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. Later, they began to fan out to other cities. As they extend their reach so has the terrorism grown to those cities. BSF Director General, A. Mitra recently quoted a West Bengal intelligence report to indicate the magnitude of the problem. “Between 1972 and 2005, over 12 lakh Bangladeshis entered India with valid permits but did not go back”, he said. Former Defence Minister George Fernandez in September 2003, had stated that there were about twenty million Bangladeshis in India. His discussions with the Eastern Army Commander revealed that over one hundred thousand infiltrators were crossing the border every year.
But Paswan, a key UPA ally, with electoral gains in mind now wants to hand them citizenship on a platter even if this comes at the cost of India’s security.
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