North East News Agency

Bangladesh assured India that it would not provide refuge to ultras fleeing from the North-East and to take effective steps to check infiltration from its side even as it maintained that no camps of Indian insurgents existed on its soil.

Dhaka also agreed to cooperate in tackling cross-border smuggling of drugs and cattle, besides agreeing to allow developmental activities within 150 yards of the border and tea plantations till the zero line, barring certain stretches.

An agreement regarding these was arrived at after four days of discussions between the directors-general of the Border Security Force (BSF) A.K. Mitra and Bangladeshi Rifles (BDR) Major Shakil Ahmed here as part of the Indo-Bangladesh Border Coordination Conference.

“We are determined to ensure that miscreants from India do not get a breathing space in Bangladesh…Any insurgent from India taking sanctuary in Bangladesh will be arrested and put through the law,” Major Ahmed said at a joint media interaction with his BSF counterpart Mitra after the conclusion of the four-day talks.

Asserting that there were no insurgent camps in Bangladesh, Major Ahmed said Dhaka had investigated on the lists, though outdated and old, given by India from time to time about the presence of insurgent camps in the country.

He, however, said any insurgent from India taking sanctuary in Bangladesh would be arrested and put through the law. In this context, he pointed out that the BDR had detained eight persons who had entered the country from the North-East during the past two months.

India has been seeking Bangladesh’s help to smash insurgent camps in that country and had handed over a list of 176 camps of various insurgent groups like ULFA, the National Liberation Front of Tripura, the All-Tripura Tiger Force, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland and the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation in Bangladesh.

The BSF director-general said the list was drawn up on the basis of intelligence inputs and “we will not be able to say emphatically that it is accurate”. Besides, there were mobile camps also which kept shifting, he said.

The bi-annual meeting of the border security officials also decided to take a host of confidence-building measures, including increasing the area and frequency of simultaneous joint patrolling and discussing the feasibility for starting a joint retreat ceremony at Patrapole in West Bengal on the lines of the Wagah border.

Asked specifically about ULFA leader Anup Chetiya, the BDR chief sought to sidestep the question, saying that a writ petition in this regard was pending in a high court in Bangladesh and “we cannot do much about it”.

Both sides also recognised the need to keep a check on touts who play a key role in trafficking of women and children from Bangladesh into India and decided to increase institutional interaction in the field of sports.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh has said it will resume talks with New Delhi on a proposed tri-nation gas pipeline from Myanmar to India through its territory, giving up its preconditions which had earlier stalled the negotiations.

“Definitely the tri-national pipeline issue will come up for discussion,” power and energy adviser in the caretaker government Tapan Chowdhury said before leaving for Delhi to attend SAARC energy ministers’ meeting to be held tomorrow. He said he would raise the pipeline issue with his Indian counterpart. “But there will be no conditions tagged with the pipeline. If it is beneficial for us economically, we will move forward,” he said. Discussions between Dhaka and New Delhi on the proposed gas pipeline have remained stalled for some time now.

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