DHAKA: Bangladesh has once again rejected an Indian proposal for a bilateral extradition treaty to exchange criminals hiding in each other’s territory, an official was quoted as saying in a newspaper report yesterday.
Any such treaty must involve others of the eight-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Dhaka insists. The three-day ninth home-secretary-level meeting between Bangladesh and India begins here tomorrow, with New Delhi likely to press for an extradition treaty, The Daily Star newspaper said yesterday.
“India is keen to sign an extradition treaty with Bangladesh only, but Dhaka is not interested as the treaty should involve all members of the regional forum,” an unnamed Foreign Ministry official told the newspaper.
The issue has been pending for long, even as both the South Asian neighbors accuse each other of illegal movement through a 4,300 km porous border. Besides common law-breakers, India says several leaders and activists of the militant outfits of its northeastern region are operating from Bangladeshi soil.
Dhaka responds with a similar accusation about “political fugitives” taking shelter in India. In 2002, India sought Dhaka’s cooperation in mutual legal assistance, counterterrorism and extradition.
The Bangladesh Foreign Ministry official said SAARC leaders at their recent summit in Colombo signed an agreement on mutual legal cooperation and counterterrorism, covering the extradition issue. “Since a multilateral agreement is already in place, Bangladesh is assessing whether there is any need for a bilateral one with India on exchange of criminals,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh police have abolished a political intelligence office they launched two weeks ago after protests by major political parties, the police chief said yesterday.
Nur Mohammad, inspector general of Police, told reporters the political intelligence office (PIO) created to monitor party activities ahead of elections due around the end of this year “has been abolished because of resentments by the parties.”
The PIO was intended to collect advance reports about the activities of political parties that could threaten law and order and harm the public interest, police had said earlier.
But the biggest parties - the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) - cried foul over the unit’s creation, saying it would make politics more difficult. The Awami League is led by Hasina Wajed and the BNP by Khaleda Zia, both former prime ministers.
Police yesterday broke up protests in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country called by the BNP to demand release of Khaleda and Tareque Rahman, her elder son and political heir, witnesses said.
Baton-wielding police snatched banners and placards and dispersed the activists at different points in the capital Dhaka. “Street protests and rallies are banned under an ongoing state of emergency,” police said in a statement.
A state of emergency was imposed in Bangladesh after an army-backed interim government took charge in January last year following months of political violence. The interim administration banned political activities, rallies and protests.
Mohammad said police would continue their usual intelligence watches on political activities through existing detective and criminal investigation units. Political parties are campaigning for the lifting of the emergency before the elections.
