DHAKA, 20 March 2006 — Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Khaleda Zia heads today for a three-day visit to India to hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a wide range of issues.
During the visit, her first to India since taking power in October 2001, Khaleda will discuss “joint cooperation to fight terrorism” with her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zahirul Haq said. “Both sides will discuss all bilateral issues including cross-border terrorism, security, trade, transport linkages and water sharing of common rivers,” Haq said.
He said Bangladesh was committed to wiping out extremist elements and would not allow its territory as a base for waging insurgencies against India. “We expect it to be a landmark visit in the bilateral ties between the two neighbors,” Haq said.
Indian Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and State Minister for External Affairs E. Ahamed will call on Prime Minister Khaleda at her hotel suite today. The prime minister will inaugurate the chancery of Bangladesh High Commission tonight.
Tomorrow, she would attend a reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and lay wreath at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial.
Khaleda will also meet with President of the Indian National Congress and Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi at her residence.
India has expressed concerns about a rise of extremism in Bangladesh and last year boosted border troop numbers in a bid to stop infiltration by militants.
Concerns deepened after 434 synchronized blasts, allegedly set by the little known group Jamatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB), detonated across Bangladesh last August.
India said “the scale and coordination of these explosions countrywide raises a number of questions”.
The Bangladesh government, a four-party Islamist-allied coalition, last year admitted that it had woken up late to the threat posed by the militants and vowed to root them out. Last week the government said it had now “totally broken” the JMB network in the country after a series of high profile captures that included its leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his deputy Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai.
