Nur Hossain will return the same way Anup Chetia was handed over, Home Minister Kamal says

Narayanganj seven-murder suspect Nur Hossain will be brought back to Bangladesh much the same way ULFA leader Anup Chetia has been returned to India, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said.

But the minister asked journalists on Wednesday not to see it as an 'exchange'.
 
According to him, Nur Hossain’s extradition will be motivated by 'good relations' with India.
 
Bangladesh handed Assam's separatist movement leader Chetia over to India on Wednesday after he had been in prison for 18 years.
 
New Delhi had long been seeking Chetia's extradition.
 
After Indian media broke the news, Home Minister Kamal said he knew nothing about it. He confirmed the extradition of the ULFA leader about one and a half hours later.
 
Still another 30 minutes later, he told reporters Chetia had been handed over to India as per his own wishes. 
 
Asked by reporters about steps to get Nur Hossain back from West Bengal, the minister said, "We will bring him back when the government of that country tells us he has been freed. 
 
“We'll receive him at the border just the way we left Anup Chetia there," he said.
    
Asked what Chetia had been exchanged for after such a long confinement, the minister said, "Our relations with India are not based on exchanges alone."
 
"We maintain good relations with India, a country friendly towards us. We help each other out whenever necessary," he said.
 
"So there is no question of exchange," he added. 

Nur Hossain fled to India after the murder of seven people in Narayanganj last year. West Bengal police arrested him and he now faces trial for trespassing and unauthorised possession of arms.
 
The Bangladesh government claims to be working on bringing him back.
 
Anup Chetia was caught in Bangladesh in 1997. He was jailed for seven years for trespassing. After serving the term, he was not released or extradited.
 
According to Home Minister Kamal, the embassy of a foreign prisoner’s country is informed when the person’s detention period is over. 
 
"We have released him (Chetia) from our jail. He has crossed the border. That's all we know," he said.
 
Asked if Chetia’s handover was based on an extradition treaty with India, the minister said ‘no’ and added, "We are friendly countries. We always help each other."
 
Describing the handover process, he said, "When someone crosses the border from one country to another, if you call it a 'handover', then it's a 'handover'. He went through two sides - our BGB and their BSF."
 
Asked who received Chetia, the home minister said, "It is the respective embassy's duty to receive a foreigner from our jail. He might have gone through that process."
 
He also said no secrecy was being maintained. "All we want to say is that it depended on the Indian (high commission) how they would receive him."
 
While in jail, Chetia had filed a writ petition at the High Court seeking safety of his life. 
 
The plea was yet to see an order. The High Court had ordered to keep him in safe custody until the order.
 
"He (Chetia) had later filed another petition to withdraw the previous one. When he was going he said ‘I am going consciously, in sound condition and willingly'," Kamal said.
 
Chetia’s associates Babul Sharma and Lakshmiprasad Goswami, who had been in Kashimpur Jail with him, also crossed the border into India, the home minister said.