Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expects same tough stance from India as Bangladesh’s to combat terrorism.
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In an interview with Kolkata-based Anandabazar Patrika on Friday, she said: “India needs to take actions to destroy Bangladeshi militants operating from India much in the same way Indian militants have been obliterated from Bangladesh’s soil.”
Hasina’s statement came after Indian intelligence claimed that the two people killed in a recent explosion in a house at Burdwan in West Bengal state were Bangladeshis and members of outlawed militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.Indian media reported that intelligence got hints of JMB, Indian Mujahideen (IM) and Al-Jihad’s links to the Burdwan explosion.
Quoting India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials, the media said JMB, setting up bases in West Bengal, planned to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP chief Khaleda Zia simultaneously to throw Bangladesh in total chaos.
Hasina said in the interview: “We feel bad when we come to know that taking shelters in the very West Bengal, militants are conspiring against Bangladesh, the (Bangladesh) government and the people.”
She expected the people of West Bengal, who had extended all possible support to Bangladesh during its 1971 Liberation War, would not ‘tolerate it’.
Highlighting Bangladesh’s role in combating anti-Indian militants, the prime minister said: “We flushed out Indian militants from Bangladesh’s soil. Many (militants) had influential friends. But we haven’t spared anyone. We kept our side of the bargain.”
“Now let the Indian people destroy the bases of Bangladeshi militants on their (India) soil. Let them find out and punish the people of that country who are harbouring these militants,” she added.
Indian intelligence claimed in a recent report that Bangladeshi militants were provided several million dollars through a leader of West Bengal’s ruling party, Trinamool Congress, to destabilise Bangladesh.
Trinamool chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, has kept mum on the issue.
Hasina said Bangladesh government had information as to who were giving shelters to Bangladeshi terrorists.
“Having been chased here, the militants have taken shelters in the neighbouring country. We have information on who are harbouring them and what conspiracies are going on. However, everything cannot be said right now.”
The prime minister said Bangladesh was extending every cooperation to India in the investigation of the Burdwan explosion.
Bangladeshi intelligence officials will soon go to India to ‘exchange information’ on the matter, she added.
Source: Bd news24
