Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata Abida Islam is scheduled to meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee this afternoon.
Foreign Ministry officials said the meeting is purely a farewell courtesy call as Abida is coming back to Dhaka shortly, and it has no link with the ongoing media reports relating to a fund scam.
The meeting comes amid media reports in India and Bangladesh that a Trinamool Congress lawmaker and Saradha gave money to Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
Indian media on Friday reported that the WB chief minister summoned the Bangladesh envoy, but the report was later proved false.
Bangladesh foreign ministry instantly clarified the matter, saying the Indian media reports in this regard was not based on fact. It said upon request from the deputy high commissioner, the West Bengal chief minister gave time for the courtesy call.
Meanwhile, The Times of India in a fresh report yesterday said intelligence agencies now claimed they had sufficient evidence that Saradha funds were used by fundamentalist outfits in Bangladesh against the Awami League before the general elections in Bangladesh.
This has got the centre worried as it doesn’t want ties with the Sheikh Hasina government to suffer due to this. The Bangladeshi prime minister is already under pressure over the Teesta water sharing issue, said the report headlined “Did Saradha cash fund extremists in Bangladesh?”
The transfer of funds was allegedly facilitated by Trinamool Congress MP Ahmad Hasan Imran, a former general secretary of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India.
While Hasan has vehemently denied these allegations, the ruling BJP has made this an issue.
Source: The Daily Star
