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New Delhi, Feb. 23: India would ask Bangladesh to “send back” jailed Ulfa leader Anup Chetia and another top Northeast insurgent when home minister P. Chidambaram meets his counterpart Shahara Khatun at a city hotel tomorrow, official sources said today.
The officials said Delhi had prepared a list of seven Indian insurgents and criminals serving sentences in Bangladeshi jails and 12 militants said to be hiding in that country. The list will be handed over to Bangladesh home secretary C.Q.K Mustaq Ahmed, the sources added.
Khatun is leading a 16-member delegation that also includes the adviser to the Prime Minister, Gowher Rizvi, inspector-general of police Hassan Mahmood Khandkar and two additional secretaries in the Bangladesh home ministry.
“We want Chetia and six others who are lodged in Bangladeshi jails to be sent back,” said a government official.
The six others include Subir Debbarma, the self-styled vice-president of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), who was arrested from Khagrachari in Bangladesh earlier this month.
Sources in the security establishment argue that although Chetia has applied for asylum through a United Nations body, it should not stop Dhaka from deporting the 55-year-old when he finishes his sentence.
An extradition treaty is yet to be signed between the two sides .
Chetia is Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua’s brother and mentor. While Barua is in Myanmar, the government’s attempts to persuade Chetia to return to India and join peace talks have failed.
Last year, when Ulfa leader Arabinda Rajkhowa and others began the peace talks, the government felt the absence of Chetia, an important voice of the Assam outfit whose return could have isolated Barua.
Although operations of Indian insurgent groups from Bangladeshi soil have drastically reduced since Sheikh Hasina came to power, many militants are still at large, sources said. The Centre’s list of 12 such insurgents on the run includes Biswamohan Debbarma, who heads one faction of the NLFT.
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