By IANS,
Dhaka: “Subversive activities” by fugitives of an Indian militant group are “part of a conspiracy” against Bangladesh and won’t be permitted, a minister said Wednesday.
Minister of State for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku said the government was determined to uproot the fugitives who belong to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and that he had directed the authorities to act against them, Star Online, the website of The Daily Star newspaper reported.
His statement at a function came ahead of the visit to India of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, possibly later this month.
Militancy, both by Islamists and insurgent groups from India’s northeastern region, which is affecting both countries, is expected to be high on the agenda of bilateral talks.
New Delhi has for long alleged that Ulfa and other militant groups were using Bangladesh soil to carry out violent operations on the Indian side. Dhaka denied the charge till the change of the political dispensation in January.
ULFA fugitive Amal Das was nabbed recently, the bdnews24 news agency web site said, but did not indicate when this had happened.
ULFA’s military wing chief Anup Chetia is still in Bangladesh, long after serving a jail term for travelling on fake documents.
Minister Tuku pointed an accusing finger at the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) during whose tenure the “conspiracies” had been hatched.
He referred in this context to the haul of 10 truckloads of arms and ammunition in April 2004. Brought from China in a ship belonging to a BNP lawmaker, they were offloaded at Chittagong port.
Media reports have said the government of then prime minister Khaleda Zia sought to suppress the incident and investigations dragged till the change of dispensation.
Two retired Bangladesh Army generals who headed the intelligence body National Services Intelligence (NSI) are in jail and under probe by a Chittagong court.
“During the four-party alliance government, 10 truckloads of arms came to the country and a deadly grenade attack was carried out on Sheikh Hasina on Aug 21 (2004),” Tuku said.
Twenty-eight people, including senior leaders of Hasina’s Awami League were killed at a party rally that year.