Dhaka postpones team’s visit to Indian dam site

September 12th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh says it will not hand over Indian separatist leader Anup Chetia, who served a jail term here for entering the country with fake documents, but stressed it would not allow its territory to be used by militants. Back from her visit to India, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told reporters Friday that Chetia, a top leader of the United Liberation of Asom (ULFA), had already completed his sentence.

August 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Ahead of Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni's visit to India Sep 7, Dhaka wants more information on Delhi's plan to build Tipaimukh dam in Manipur state, a senior official has said. Foreign Secretary Mirajul Quayes described last month's visit to India by a parliamentary team as "useful" and said the data supplied by India was being examined by a committee of experts, New Age newspaper reported Sunday.

August 19th, 2009 DHAKA/NEW DELHI - Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni will undertake her maiden official visit to India on September 8 and is expected to discuss several bilateral issues, including border security, water and maritime boundary issues. Foreign ministry officials, however, said the details of the visit are yet to be finalised.

July 27th, 2009 DHAKA - The Bangladesh team preparing to study the Tipaimukh dam project in India has promised to do its 'best', but says it would depend upon the extent to which the hosts facilitate all its movements. "We will not be able to roam around at will while visiting the Tipaimukh dam, as we will be guided by the Indian counterpart," chief of the delegation Abdur Razzaq, who is also chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on water resources, told the media Sunday.

July 26th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's opposition parties have opted out of a team that will visit the site of the Tipaimukh dam in India's Manipur state. While Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has conveyed that their two lawmakers would not join it, a lone member of its Islamist ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Saturday said he had met with an accident and was unlikely to join.

July 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI/DHAKA - Former Indian president Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will undertake a three-day visit of Bangladesh capital of Dhaka from Sunday.

July 17th, 2009 DHAKA - Former Indian president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will head to Bangladesh next week to interact with the leadership here and visit educational institutions.

July 10th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's main opposition party will write to foreign governments and international organisations to protest the proposed Tipaimukh dam in northeastern India on grounds that it will hurt the environment. Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia had last month written to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking him to desist from constructing the dam on Barak river in Manipur state.

July 5th, 2009 DHAKA - At least 10 people, including five policemen, were injured Sunday when the members of a rights body clashed with the police outside the Indian high commission here, protesting the construction of Tipaimukh dam in India's Manipur state. The clash took place around 11:30 a.m.

June 29th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia Monday sought the help of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for sending a separate team to visit the Tipaimukh dam project site located in India's northeast. She accepted a suggestion made last week by Hasina that the opposition was free to send its own team, Star Online reported.

June 20th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh has expressed confidence that India would do "nothing harmful" on a proposed river dam in Manipur state in north-eastern India, a minister has said. Dhaka would do "everything possible if the dam proves to be a threat to Bangladesh's environment", Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told reporters Friday.

June 16th, 2009 DHAKA - A Bangladeshi team of parliamentarians and water experts is to visit an Indian dam construction project to assess its possible ecological effects on the country, a parliamentary panel said Tuesday. "We have decided to send a delegation to India to witness its Tipaimukh project," said Abdur Razzak, the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the Water Resources Ministry.

February 15th, 2009 DHAKA - Indian singer Manna Dey says the Dhaka audience is better than that in Kolkata, which makes him come to the Bangladesh capital more often. 'As the Bangladeshi listeners are better than the Kolkata audience, I come here off and on,' he said on the eve of his performance here.

January 12th, 2009 DHAKA - Joint fight against terrorism and some of the long-pending bilateral issues will be discussed when Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee visits Dhaka in early February, an official said. Announcing Monday the tentative programme of the minister's visit, Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty said the main concern of the Indian government was to ensure security in the region by eradicating terrorism, New Age newspaper reported.

January 3rd, 2009 DHAKA - India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to be here mid-January, among the first foreign dignitaries to visit Bangladesh after the new government led by Sheikh Hasina is sworn in next Tuesday. The outgoing caretaker government's Foreign Affairs Advisor Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury confirmed this, but said details of the visit would be worked out by the new government.