Bangladesh, India sign landmark pacts

India and Bangladesh on Monday signed two landmark agreements -- an extradition treaty to facilitate transfer of criminals and terrorists and an agreement to liberalise the visa regime between the two countries.

The agreements were signed at the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the afternoon. Both Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Bangladesh Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir shook hands and rejoiced the inking of the agreements.

The draft of the extradition treaty was approved by the Bangladesh cabinet earlier in the day. The Indian cabinet on Jan 24 approved the treaty.

Delhi now expects it will be able to take back ULFA's "general secretary" Anup Chetia to stand trial in India though sources in his home state Assam say Chetia may join the pro-talks group of the ULFA and participate in negotiations with the Indian government.

In the absence of an extradition treaty, Bangladesh had to resort to pushing back the insurgent leaders and activists from India's northeastern states -- an arrangement necessarily shrouded in secrecy and deniability.

Last week, Bangladesh pushed back All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) chief Ranjit Debbarma and he is now standing trial in Tripura.

Bangladesh also expects to get custody of criminals like Subrata Bain and Sazzad Hossain. The Indian police detained Bain in the West Bengal and Hossain in Panjab’s Amritsar. Both of them have dozens of cases against them in Bangladesh.

The extradition pact, however, will not be applicable for political prisoners. Both the countries will be able to cancel the agreement with a six-month notice.

The agreement also does not mention a time limit on carrying out a request of exchanging prisoners.

Meanwhile, once the agreement to liberalise the visa regime between the two countries is put in force, tourists from the neighbouring countries will get visas for upto one year. This will allow them to travel between the countries more than once.

The visa will allow up to three persons to accompany a patient.

Until now, India has been granting Bangladeshi tourists visas for upto six months and allowed one person to accompany a patient.

Dhaka and New Delhi agreed upon inking the pacts during Home Minister Alamgir’s India visit in last December.

Cabinet approves extradition treaty