By IANS
Dhaka : The India-Bangladesh agreement on exchange of actionable intelligence pertaining to militant activity signed last month faces its first test following last week’s blasts in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, media reports here said.
Asked whether Dhaka was requested by New Delhi for assistance during the meeting of home secretaries of the two countries, Bangladesh’s Acting Foreign Secretary Mohammed Tauhid Hussain was quoted as saying by the Daily Star: “Yes, but that was back then”.
Though Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said New Delhi had contacted Dhaka over the blasts, Bangladesh Tuesday night denied that any request for assistance from India had been received.
Mukherjee had said in New Delhi Tuesday that India had sought the assistance of Bangladesh during the home-secretary level meeting in Delhi in the first week of August to capture those allegedly responsible for a spate of bomb blasts in India.
The Indian request could lead to “the first test for the new agreement”, the newspaper said.
Dhaka has denied involvement of any of its nationals or the use of its territory for terror acts in India.
The foreign ministry termed Indian media reports as “disturbing and clearly motivated” and said sensationalism of the kind would “undermine” friendly relations between the two neighbours.
Regarding the reported arrest of Mohammed Sharifuddin alias Abu Hamza alias Kanchan, Hussain told Daily Star Tuesday night: “The home ministry has informed me that no one by that name [Mohammad Sharifuddin] has been arrested here.”
The foreign office had earlier indicated that it would lodge a protest with India.
Denying the Indian claim of having made the requests, a foreign ministry press release Tuesday stated: “So far, Bangladesh has not received any request for information in connection with the Hyderabad blasts.”
The Indian media had Tuesday quoted India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Vijay Shanker as saying that they had received information that Bangladesh had arrested Mohammed Sharifuddin, who also goes by the aliases Abu Hamza and Kanchan.
The Aug 25 twin blasts in Hyderabad killed 44 people.