Bangladesh hands over ULFA separatist leader Anup Chetia, two accomplices to India

Top Assamese separatist leader Anup Chetia has been handed over to India after being held in Bangladesh prisons for 18 years.

Senior Correspondentand India Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 11 Nov 2015, 03:14 PM
Updated : 11 Nov 2015, 06:09 PM

His two associates, Babul Sharma and Lakshmiprasad Goswami, have been sent back with him.
 
“Anup Chetia and the others have been legally deported following the end of their prison term,” said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Wednesday.
 
Chetia, whose real name is Golap Barua, was the founder general secretary of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
 
The outlawed group had waged a separatist war, lasting over two decades, for the independence of the north-eastern Indian state of Assam.
 
Chetia’s jail term had ended eight years back but his deportation remained stuck, ostensibly in the absence of an extradition treaty with India.
 
Media reports had speculated that Chetia could be handed over, if India were to send back Narayanganj multiple-murder accused Nur Hossain, currently being held there.
 
An extradition treaty was signed by Bangladesh and India in 2013, but Chetia’s transfer had not been done under its provisions, said the home minister.
 
“This has not been done under the extradition treaty. The envoy of that country had been informed. They have taken him away after his release,” he said.
 
Chetia and his companions were arrested from a house in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur area on Dec 21, 1997. They were charged with illegal stay in Bangladesh and holding unauthorised foreign currency and a satellite phone.
 
Later, he was sentenced to three, four and seven years’ prison terms in three cases. His sentence ended on Feb 25, 2007.
 
Babul and Lakshmisprasad, too, were sentenced in these cases.
                        
The Indian separatist leader was being held in the Kashimpur high security prison in Gazipur since 2012.
 
Indian High Commission official took him from there under strict secrecy in the early hours of Wednesday.
 
The handover was kept such a well-guarded secret that the Bangladesh government had denied the matter until Wednesdayafternoon, long after the India media had reported the development.

The Bangladesh media picked up the news after India’s national news agency, the Press Trust of India, reported the handover in the morning, quoting authorities.

Several senior Indian foreign ministry officials confirmed the development when contacted by bdnews24.com.

But Bangladesh Home Minister Assaduzzaman Khan Kamal denied the deportation, when asked by reporters around 11am at a function in Dhaka.

“I have no information,” he had said.

When his attention was drawn to reports in the Indian media, he said: “I don’t know anything about this.”

However, an hour and a half later, Kamal changed tack, admitting the handover before reporters at the end of the function.

He later briefed journalists at the Secretariat but gave no details of how the three Indians were sent back.

“The border does not come into the picture. We released him from prison. How they have gone, how they were received is another matter,” he said when pressed.

“If you consider their going over to the BSF in the presence of BGB personnel to be a handover, then so be it. They went to India during dawn this morning.”

He was asked whether any conditions were attached to the move, especially if India would hand back Nur Hossain.

Kamal said: “India is a friendly country. [He] was not given back in exchange for anything. The punishment term had ended, there was a court order, we have released [him].”

A senior official of the Dhaka Central Jail-1 at Kashimpur told bdnews24.com they had released only Anup Chetia in the presence of Indian High Commission functionaries following instructions from ‘the top’.

He said he had no idea of how Chetia was subsequently taken to India.

A source in Sylhet police said three Indians had been allowed to cross the border with BGB help, though no confirmation of this could be had from the Border Guard Bangladesh .

Chetia had been flown to Delhi, an Indian intelligence officer told bdnews24.com.

An Indian home ministry official said he might be handed over to the Assam police after being interrogated in Delhi, as he has cases against him pending in that state.

Chetia had sought political asylum in Bangladesh in 2005, 2008, and 2011, even before his sentence ran its course. He had also written to the UN in 2008 seeking refugee status.

His release after the end of his prison term remained in abeyance following a High Court order in response to his appeal for asylum.

The ULFA, in the meantime, began to weaken under Indian pressure. Its Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and several other top leaders were arrested in Bangladesh.

They were handed over to India towards the end of 2009, and were released following their promise to hold peace talks.

Although ULFA military commander Paresh Barua stuck to an armed struggle for Assam’s sovereignty, Chetia favoured an understanding with the Indian government, the Indian media reported in 2013.

He even withdrew his appeal for political asylum in Bangladesh, expressing interest in returning to India.

“I am still being held prisoner, although my jail term ended in 2007. How long will I have to suffer in jail?’ he had written in a letter to the Bangladesh home ministry.

“I had earlier sought political asylum. But now I do not want that any more. Release me, and allow me to go back to my country,” he added.

Although Chetia’s possible deportation came to be discussed in different forums after this, the issue appeared to gain momentum after Narayanganj seven-murder accused Nur Hossain’s arrest in Kolkata.

Media reports said an agreement had been reached in secretary-level talks between Bangladesh and India in Dhaka last September on Chetia’s deportation in exchange for Hossain’s handover.

But a trespass case against Hossain under India’s passport law made his transfer prospects untenable.

However, the Indian government withdrew the case against Hossain, prompting the court to order his return to Bangladesh.

With Hossain’s handover now being cleared of fetters, the question of Chetia’s fate resurfaced. And Bangladesh returned the ULFA leader within a month.

PTI says Chetia’s handover was made possible by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘personal initiative’ and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ‘personal decision’.

And Kolkata’s leading daily ‘Anandabazar Patrika’ wrote: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to convey his Diwali greetings. He also congratulated her for her role in fighting terrorism.”