By IANS,
New Delhi : Bangladesh Monday reaffirmed that it has “zero tolerance” for anti-India activities on its soil and assured that criminals like United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leader Anup Chetia will be handed over to India soon.
“Anti-India forces are not active in Bangladesh. We don’t allow them. We don’t allow them to do anything like that,” Bangladesh Home Secretary Monzur Hossain said at a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart R.K. Singh here.
Hossain, however, added that aberrations do occur and “that is a different issue”.
“But they will not be tolerated. We have zero tolerance for them,” he asserted.
The assurance comes after India during the 12th meeting of the home secretaries of the two countries raised concerns over the terror outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) trying to regroup in Bangladesh.
The terror outfit is suspected to be involved in recent attacks in India, including the September bomb blast outside the Delhi High Court.
Hossain and Singh were addressing reporters at the end of the talks.
On the possible deportation of Chetia, who is in Bangladesh since his arrest in 1997 and has sought political asylum there, the Bangladesh official said it has not happened so far because of some legal issues.
“Legal matters are not in our hands. Once that is done, we will take appropriate action at the earliest,” he said.
The two sides issued a joint statement at the conclusion of the two-day talks on expanding and strengthening mutual cooperation in security and border-related issues.
“Appreciating the existing level of cooperation and action taken to address the menace of terrorism and extremism in a more effective manner by both the countries, (the) home secretaries reaffirm their commitment not to allow the territory of either country to be used for any activity inimical to each other’s interests,” the joint statement said.
Other issues raised during the talks between Singh and Hossain include cross-border terror, and police-to-police co-operation in capacity building and training, a home ministry spokesperson said.