The Hindu : No forward movement seen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 16, 2003

National

National

No forward movement seen

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI FEB. 15. The signs of future possibilities in Indo-Bangladesh relations that the Ministry of External Affairs spoke of on Friday were apparently absent at the meeting between the Bangladesh Foreign Minister, Mohammed Morshed Khan, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, today.

Briefing the press after the meeting, the Secretary (Border Management) in the Home Ministry, R.C.A. Jain, said that apart from reiterating the already-held positions and maintaining the courtesies of such interchanges, the meeting produced nothing to indicate a forward movement on any of India's areas of concern.

Mr. Jain said that Mr. Advani raised four major issues with Mr. Khan — the camps run by Indian insurgent groups such as the ULFA, the NSCN (I-M), the NSCN (K), the NLFT and the NDFB in Bangladesh, the issue of deportation or extradition of a list of 88 named Indian insurgents sent to Dhaka earlier, the continuing issue of illegal immigrants and the presence of the ISI in Bangladesh. While promising cooperation on all issues, Mr. Khan "gave no commitment of demonstrable action".

Mr. Jain said that Mr. Khan expressed the view that all problems listed by the Home Minister were "mutual problems" as Indian illegal immigrants were present in Bangladesh, Bangladeshi criminals were living in India and an active ISI presence existed in India also. On Indian insurgent camps, he "promised full cooperation in ensuring that the Bangladesh soil would not be used for destabilising the northeast".

This was viewed as an insufficient response as it was what Bangladesh had been saying from time to time with no visible change on the ground.

Mr. Jain said there was unwillingness on the part of Bangladesh to honour the protocols it had signed with India. Referring to the recent crisis over the 215 Bangladeshis caught between the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), he said the BDR had not only refused to take back the people but had also refused on a joint verification, a procedure established by the Indo-Bangladesh joint working group in 1991.

Mr. Khan also called on the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the latter reiterated India's concerns on issues relating to Bangladesh, besides expressing the hope that there would be progress in dealing with these matters.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National