Won’t allow ’subversion’ by fugitive Indian militants: Dhaka

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.

September 1st, 2009 DHAKA - Islamist militants fighting in Jammu and Kashmir have regularly used Bangladesh as a transit point to travel to Pakistan, an Indian militant nabbed by the police has said. Safe havens have been built in Bangladesh to shelter and train militants for terrorist operations in the South Asian region, detained Indian terrorist Mufti Obaidullah, a top leader of the India-based Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF) has revealed.

August 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh has decided not to recognise Kosovo as an independent Balkan state, rejecting a request from the US. Dhaka has made it clear that it would like to keep away (from the Kosovo issue), New Age newspaper said Sunday quoting Foreign Secretary Mirajul Quayes.

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 1st, 2009 DHAKA - An Indian militant nabbed here has disclosed that two Pakistan-based Islamist militant groups supplied grenades that were used to attack a 2004 rally addressed by Bangladesh's current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a media report said Saturday. Maulana Mansur Ali, hiding in Bangladesh for the last 15 years, told interrogators here that militant outfit Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF), which is based in Pakistani Kashmir and works with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), supplied grenades to LeT's Bangladesh chapter leader Moulana Tajuddin.

July 22nd, 2009 DHAKA - Maulana Mansur Ali alias Habibullah, an Indian national suspected of being an organiser of the banned Pakistan-based militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has been nabbed from Dhaka. The arrest comes within a week of another militant being arrested.

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 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.

June 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON/DHAKA - Several newspaper reports across South Asia have claimed that Bangladesh is emerging as the haven of choice for South Asian terror operatives, and that there stay is being facilitated by both Bangladeshi and Pakistani intelligence services. According to the Christian Science Monitor (CSM), in recent days, Bangladeshi police have uncovered a plot that used Bangladesh to transit thousands of weapons to an Indian separatist group, and followed up by arresting key members of that group in Dhaka.

May 30th, 2009 DHAKA - Dawood Ibrahim, who is wanted by the Indian government and Interpol, is attempting to expand his criminal network into Bangladesh, a top police officer said here Saturday. "Ibrahim has sent his aides to Bangladesh to expand his criminal network out of India," Shahidul Islam, chief of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said while briefing reporters on the capture of two members of Ibrahim's gang - Abdur Rouf Merchant alias Dawood Merchant and Jahid Sheikh.

May 10th, 2009 DHAKA - After Afghanistan and Iraq, Bangladesh could be the next destination of 'foreign troops' engaged in battling Muslim militants, an Islamist leader has warned here. The charge by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)'s Ameer (chief) Motiur Rahman Nizami Saturday comes close to a similar statement by former prime minister Khaleda Zia.

February 6th, 2009 DHAKA - Dhaka has strongly condemned a Pakistani investigation agency's claim of a Bangladesh-based terror outfit's involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks. 'Militants and terrorists do not belong to any territory, country and nation.

February 2nd, 2009 DHAKA - Dhaka Warriors, an Indian Cricket League (ICL) franchise comprising Bangladeshi cricketers, have alleged that the Bangladesh Cricket Board has been trying to block them from practising at a rented city ground. The BCB has barred the Dhaka Warriors from using the grounds and practice facilities owned by it and its affiliated organisations.

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.

January 2nd, 2009 DHAKA - Indian fugitive Anup Chetia, who completed his jail term in Bangladesh in 2004, is awaiting the Dhaka High Court's verdict on his plea for political asylum, a media report said Saturday. Chetia, who belongs to the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a militant group accused of widespread violence in northeast India's Assam state, was nabbed for entering Bangladesh on forged papers, convicted and jailed about 10 years ago.