Anup Chetia handed over to India [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Anup Chetia handed over to India

Local November 12, 2015

The government secretly handed over to India separatist leader United Liberation Front of Asom Anup Chetia and two of his associates Wednesday early in the morning.
On December 21, 1997, Anup was arrested in Dhaka with the two associates on the charges of trespassing into Bangladesh with fake passports hiding their identities and illegally carrying foreign currencies.
ULFA general secretary Anup and Babul Sharma and Lokkhi Prashad, his associates were handed over to India through the Dawki border point in Sylhet, said senior home ministry officials.
They said that the transfer took place in the presence of Border Guard Bangladesh and the Indian Border Security Force.
‘Anup Chetia was released from the Kashimpur Prison as his jail term had expired earlier,’ said home minister Asaduzzaman Khan.
As Anup expressed the desire to return home, said the home minister, ‘We informed the Indian Commission in Dhaka that he is being released.’
In the afternoon, the home minister being pressed told reporters at his office that Anup crossed into India through the land border in the presence of BGB and BSF in the morning.
Asked to comment on Press Trust of India breaking the news that Anup had been handed over to India, Asaduzzaman expressed his ignorance about it in the morning.
The home minister said Anup’s associates Babul Sharma and Lokkhi Prashad had also been released from the jail with him.
Asked how Bangladesh would gain by handing over Anup and his associates to India, the minister said, that as the two neighbouring countries always enjoyed good relations ‘We expect nothing from India in return.’
Kashimpur High Security Prison’s senior superintendent Mizanur Rahman handed over the three Indian nationals to the Indian High Commission officials in the early hours of Wednesday, said inspector general of prisons brigadier general Syed Iftekhar Uddin.
He said the same officials of the Indian High Commission met with the senior jail superintendent several times in the past.
A senior home ministry official said that Anup’s handover took place following negations between his faction of ULFA and the Indian government.
As soon as Anup reached India, its prime Narendra Modi spoke to his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina and conveyed her Diwali greetings and thanked her for the help in fighting terrorism, twitted Indian Prime Minister’s Office.
The IG Prisons told a news briefing at his office that Anup Chetia was released after in an application he expressed the wish to go back to India through the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
‘As Anup applied twice expressing his wish to return to India, I asked him how he would go back, he said he would prefer returning home through the High Commission,’ said the IGP.
He said, ‘We conveyed Anup’s wish to India through the foreign ministry.’
Replying to a question, he said that he was not aware whether Anup was kept in safe custody following a High Court order.
Human rights lawyer Sigma Huda, who moved Chetia’s writ petition seeking political asylum, told New Age that his client was in safe custody following an HC order issued in August 2003 as he felt insecure to return home.
She, however, said that under pressure she had informed the jail authorities that she would no longer proceed with Anup’s writ petition.
Anup and his associates served several jail terms totaling seven years since 1998 in three cases relating to holding fake passports, illegal possession of foreign currencies and other offences.
They completed the jail terms in 2004 but could not be released as there was no clearance from the India, said the IGP.
The release followed an understanding between the two governments, he said.
In June 2013, Anup Chetia applied to the home ministry through the jail authorities, expressing his willingness to return to India in a marked shift from his previous stand under which he had sought political asylum in Bangladesh, said officials.
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Wednesday that Anup had earlier withdrawn his writ petition seeking political asylum.
Bangladesh earlier handed over top ULFA leader Arabinda Rajkhowa and an unspecified number of other Indian separatist leaders in December 2009 through the land border with the north-eastern Indian province of Assam.
After Arabinda’s return to India ULFA suffered several splits.
Dhaka faced repeated pressure from Delhi to repatriate Anup.