New Delhi, January 28
The Government of India has urged Dhaka to hand over 88 Indian insurgents, who are currently living in Bangladesh, including key insurgents like Sanjit Dev Burman of the All-Tripura ‘Tiger Force, Anup Chetia and Paresh Barua of the ULFA.

This Indian position was made clear to the Bangladesh Government during the recently concluded meeting of the Joint Working Group in Dhaka. According to well placed official sources, the Indian side stressed the fact that cooperation by the Bangladeshi side would send a clear-cut message to all militants that Bangladesh did not welcome such anti-India activities and at the same time it would reassure the Indian public that Dhaka was not out to sabotage Indian interests.

India also gave specific information about the existence of militant training camps in Bangladesh and called on Dhaka to have them wound up. In the same tone New Delhi also brought up the issue of Pakistan’s ISI using Bangladesh territory for the anti-India operations.

The Bangladesh Government was defensive in its reaction but assured the Indian side that it would undertake action to allay the Indian concerns — action that could be monitored at the next meeting of the JWG.

In that context it was agreed that Dhaka and New Delhi would create additional channels of communications to monitor action on the Indian concerns.

Another major contentious issue that is developing between the two countries is that of illegal Bangladeshi migration. On January 27 evening as 50 Bangladeshi migrants were being repatriated to their country the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) opened fire and killed two persons.