By IANS,
New Delhi : India has offered Bangladesh help to trace graves of freedom fighters of the 1971 War of Liberation war and transfer their remains, and asked Dhaka for a concept paper on how to move forward on this goodwill measure.
The issue was taken up by Bangladesh Foreign secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes during his talks with his Indian counterpart Ranjan Mathai Tuesday. Mathai pledged India’s support on this emotive cause that has the potential to bring emotional healing to the families of those who died in the war.
“India is committed to help Bangladesh in this. It’s now for Bangladesh to come back to us with a concept paper on how to move forward on this,” Syed Akbaruddin, the spokesperson of the external affairs ministry, said here Wednesday.
Quayes is understood to have expressed thanks to the Indian side as the issue has a lot of emotive resonance in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has given a list of over 2,000 freedom fighters it believes are buried in “India and in no-man’s land” on the border.
A delegation led by a senior officer of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Liberation War Affairs visited India last June and met Indian officers from various ministries to firm up a mechanism to identify the graves.
They also visited Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and West Bengal where the sites are believed to be located.
During the talks Tuesday, India also assured Bangladesh that it will ratify the land boundary agreement after forging a consensus as Dhaka agreed to allow New Delhi more time to complete internal consultations to sign the stalled accord on Teesta river waters.