By IRNA,
New Delhi : India and Bangladesh have agreed to speedily hand over criminals taking shelter in each other’s territories. They also agreed to take action against militants, insurgent outfits and their leaders on the basis of real time and actionable information to be exchanged between the two sides.
This was emerged after the 3 day talks between Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and his Bangladeshi counterpart, Md. Abdul Karim in Dhaka, which concluded on Sunday.
A joint statement issued later said the two countries also decided that the verification process of released prisoners of one country held in the prisons of the other country should be expedited.
Asked to explain the decisions on exchange of prisoners or criminals hiding in each other’s territory, Gupta said they intended to systematize the process through treaties. But they should be able to cooperate with each other before hand. Karim agreed with him saying both the countries already extradited several such elements but they can’t return anyone who is still in court custody.
During the recent BDR-BSF meeting, Bangladesh handed over an updated list of 1,648 Bangladeshi criminals hiding in India while the Indian side gave a list of 464 Indian criminals.
The two Home Secretaries said killing of civilians at the frontier dominated their talks and they agreed to put in serious efforts to reduce such incidents.
On the issue of construction of fence within 150 yards of the border, Bangladesh stated the matter will be further examined including joint visits to the frontier.
Both sides expressed satisfaction with the successful reactivation of the Joint Working Group to deal with the issues relating to security and human trafficking. They also agreed to ensure peace and tranquility along the border keeping in mind relevant provisions of the Joint Border Management Guidelines of 1975.