Bangladesh may deport Ulfa leader

Bangladesh is likely to deport jailed United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa)  leader Anup Chetia to India as he sought his repatriation along with two other detained members of the outfit after languishing 16 years in jail, officials said here on Saturday.

“Wait (and see),” Home Minister Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir told sources without elaborating when asked, as to exactly when Chetia is expected to be deported.
But a Home Ministry official preferring anonymity said the Ulfa leader was shifted to the Kashimpur Central Jail on the outskirts of Dhaka on Friday as his petition was being reviewed for necessary actions.

The Ulfa founder general secretary sought political asylum in Bangladesh in 2005, 2008 and in 2011 after the Bangladesh police arrested him in December 1997 and was subsequently handed down seven years of jail terms by two courts for cross-border intrusion, carrying fake passports and illegally keeping foreign currencies.
Despite the expiry of his term, Chetia was in jail under a 2003 High Court directive asking authorities to keep him in safe custody until a decision was taken on his asylum plea.

But a senior prison official earlier said that “Chetia has expressed his willingness to return to India and we have forwarded his petition to our home ministry for consideration”.

He said Chetia, who was kept at a “division ward” meant for socially privileged inmates under jail code, also wanted repatriation of two other detained Ulfa leaders, Laxmiprasad Goswami and Babul Sharma, who are lodged in a separate prison. Bangladesh in January this year had signed an extradition treaty with New Delhi mutually agreeing to deport wanted “criminals” hiding or lodged in jails in each other’s cou­ntry. Under the agreement, only persons with charges like murders, culpable homicide and other serious offences will come under the purview of the deal while offenders of small crimes awarded with imprisonment for less than one year will also not be wanted under the treaty.