India-BD to sign extradition treaty May 7

DHAKA: India and Bangladesh are set to sign the much-waited extradition pact on May 7 during Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni’s visit to New Delhi.

Several diplomatic sources of Dhaka and New Delhi confirmed this to banglanews.

The draft of the treaty was prepared in several phases and after holding a number of meetings. Bangladesh has sent the draft to India in this week.

The extradition treaty is going to be signed under the mutual legal assistance in criminal matters that India signed with Bangladesh during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi in 2010.

Sources said the deal would be signed at the first meeting of joint commission between Bangladesh and India on May 7.

Now New Delhi is pushing for the handover of Anup Chetia, general secretary of the banned ULFA that’s active in India’s north-eastern state of Assam. Chetia has been in a Bangladesh jail since 1997 on charges of forging travel documents, carrying a satellite phone and illegally possessing foreign currencies.

Ways to strengthen trade and economic relations are a major part of the agenda for the joint commission meeting that Moni and her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna will chair, said a person familiar with the plan, who declined to be named.

Border management will also be one of the issues on the table during the talks with Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, sources said.

BDST: 0255 HRS, May 1, 2012

Edited by: Shahin Afroz, Newsroom Editor