Bangladesh cancels planned training of judges in India

New Delhi: Even as the two countries on Sunday released and repatriated each other’s fishermen incarcerated in each other’s jails, Muhammad Yunus’s interim government in Dhaka cancelled the visit of the judicial officers of Bangladesh to India for a training programme that would have been facilitated and funded by New Delhi.

Nearly 50 judges from Bangladesh were expected to attend a training programme at the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal, India from February 10 to 20.

Though the interim government led by economist Muhammad Yunus in Dhaka approved the visit of the judicial officials of Bangladesh to India on December 30, it was cancelled on Sunday.

New Delhi would have facilitated the visit of the judges from Bangladesh to India and funded the training programme they would have attended at the National Judicial Academy in Bhopal – in accordance with a bilateral agreement inked in 2017.

The move by the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus in Dhaka to cancel the visit of the judicial officers of Bangladesh to India came on a day the coast guards of the two nations exchanged the fishermen of the two nations, who were languishing in the jails in the two countries for violating the maritime boundary line in the pursuit of marine resources.

The two sides released and repatriated 95 Indian fishermen incarcerated in Bangladesh and 90 Bangladeshi fishermen lodged in the jails of India.

The reciprocal release and repatriation were completed near the international maritime boundary line between India and Bangladesh.

They also exchanged the fishing boats detained by the coast guards and the navies of the two countries. India released the FV Laila-2 and FV Meghna-5 to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, returned six fishing boats of the fishermen of India.

“In a mutual exchange of fishermen coordinated between @IndiaCoastGuard & #BangladeshCoastGuard, #ICG Ships Varad & Amrit Kaur repatriated 95 Indian fishermen & 06 fishing boats, and handed over 90 Bangladeshi fishermen, including 12 rescued from the sunken boat ‘Kaushik’,” the Indian Coast Guard posted on X.

Several Indian fishermen have been arrested in the recent months by Bangladesh authorities when they happened to inadvertently cross the International Maritime Boundary Line and entered Bangladesh waters. Several Bangladesh fishermen have also been apprehended by Indian authorities in similar circumstances, the Ministry of External Affairs stated in New Delhi.

The two sides agreed to exchange Indian and Bangladeshi fishermen lodged in each other’s jails, notwithstanding the strains in ties over New Delhi’s appeals to the interim government in Dhaka to ensure the safety and security of the Hindus and other minority communities in the neighbouring country.

New Delhi noted that the mutual exchange of fishermen and their vessels has been worked out keeping in mind the primarily humanitarian and livelihood concerns of fishing communities on both sides.

Yunus took over as the head of an interim government in Dhaka on August 8 last year – three days after the Awami League government collapsed in the wake of a massive uprising following the police crackdown on protesters demanding the end of the reservation in recruitment for government jobs.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flew to an Indian Air Force base near Delhi, just hours before a mob stormed into her official residence in Dhaka.