25,000 Bangladesh visitors don’t return home, says Indian envoy

October 8th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh has urged India to give it transit to Nepal and Bhutan to boost bilateral and South Asian regional trade and connectivity. The subject will be high on the agenda when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visits New Delhi shortly.

October 1st, 2009 DHAKA - The Indian envoy to Bangladesh has offered to reduce the number of negative items on the bilateral trade list to facilitate commerce between the two neighbours. High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty has also mooted joint investments to boost bilateral trade between the two South Asian countries to offset the trade balance that is at present heavily tilted in New Delhi's favour.

August 14th, 2009 DHAKA - A speeding bus hit a tree and crashed into a canal in Bangladesh, killing at least 13 people and injuring 10, reports said here today. The accident occurred in Feni, a town 80 miles east of Dhaka, United News of Bangladesh said.

July 24th, 2009 DHAKA - China has expressed support for talks between Dhaka and New Delhi over the proposed construction of Tipaimukh dam in India's Manipur state. The Barak river, on which the dam is to be built, flows from China into India and then goes to Bangladesh.

July 20th, 2009 DHAKA - An Indian trade delegation visiting Dhaka has urged Bangladesh to take steps to boost bilateral trade ties between the two countries. The appeal came at a seminar on "Bangladesh-India Economic Relations" at Hotel Sonargaon in Dhaka, reports the Daily Star.

July 2nd, 2009 DHAKA - Asking India not to start work on the Tipaimukh dam project, Dhaka said it was sending a team of lawmakers and experts next month to visit the site before taking up the contentious issue with New Delhi. Foreign Minister Dipu Moni made the announcement even as pressure mounted against the Sheikh Hasina government to take "political measures" against India to stop building the Tipaimukh dam on Barak river in Manipur state.

June 24th, 2009 DHAKA - The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has demanded immediate 'withdrawal' of the Indian high commissioner here after he allegedly called Bangladeshi water resources specialists protesting India's Tipaimukh dam project as "so called experts". The remark allegedly made by envoy Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty at a seminar in the presence of Foreign Minister Dipu Moni amounted to his interfering in Bangladesh's internal affairs, the BNP parliamentary party said.

May 3rd, 2009 DHAKA - New Delhi Sunday handed to Dhaka a list of suspected Indian terrorists believed to be hiding in Bangladesh, the Indian high commissioner here said. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Bangladeshi State Minister for Home Affairs Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, India's Pinak Ranjan Chakravarti said: 'We have also requested the authorities to step up vigil over them especially during the ongoing polls yet to be completed in the eastern states of India.' The envoy added that a number of issues, including extradition of prisoners, came up for discussion.

May 3rd, 2009 DHAKA - The US government believes that Islamist militancy is still a major concern in Bangladesh, the US ambassador in Dhaka said Sunday. 'We do have disturbing indications.

April 24th, 2009 DHAKA - India's envoy to Bangladesh has met opposition leader Khaleda Zia to remove irritants caused by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's inability to meet her during a February visit. Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty Thursday held a two-hour meeting with the former prime minister, the media reported Friday.

March 9th, 2009 DHAKA - As agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived here to help probe last week's mutiny, rightwing Jamaat-e-Islami party Sunday accused India of being behind the killings inside the Bangladesh border guards' headquarters. 'The killing mission was executed from Indian intelligence headquarters through close monitoring,' Matiur Rahman Nizami, the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, said while addressing a meeting of his party here.

February 25th, 2009 DHAKA - Anyone financing or renting out accommodation to people linked with religious militancy or terrorism will be tried for abetment, a Bangladesh minister has said. 'Providing militants with either assistance - be it accommodation or finance - are offences of similar gravity.

January 1st, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh poll victor Sheikh Hasina has sought the United Nations' help in the trial of 'war criminals' - those who collaborated with authorities in the erstwhile East Pakistan in killing numerous unarmed civilians during Bangladesh's freedom movement in 1971. Raising afresh the issue that has figured prominently in the public discourse and in the run-up to the ninth general election, Hasina told UN Special Envoy Ian Martin they should be tried under international laws, the New Age newspaper reported Friday.

December 25th, 2008 DHAKA - Bangladesh Friday asked India to postpone a deep sea survey in its waters until a wartime maritime boundary between the neighbouring countries is settled by mutual agreement. 'Bangladesh is lodging a formal protest with the India government about activities of a survey ship in its (Bangladesh) waters,' a foreign ministry spokesman said.

December 23rd, 2008 DHAKA - The US government Wednesday warned its citizens of risks when travelling to Bangladesh during the period around the elections slated for Dec 29. 'The security situation in Bangladesh can be fluid.