With news reports circulating that Ulfa general secretary Anup Chetia will be extradited from Bangladesh to India, chairman of Ulfa’s anti-talk faction Abhizeet Asom has appealed to the Bangladesh Government not to use Chetia’s extradition as bargaining tools for getting hands on some Bangladeshi criminals currently jailed in India.
The Ulfa chairman had sent a letter to Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina in this regard. The copy of the letter, which was mailed to the media in Assam on Tuesday, is seen as the outfit’s reaction to news reports that the neighbouring country had sought top two criminals, who are currently lodged in Indian jail — in exchange for Chetia.
“I believe you are fully aware of him (Chetia) sheltering in Bangladesh as a leader of the freedom struggle in Assam, which happens to go under Indian control in the same manner your country became Pakistan between 1947 and 1971. Under the able leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Majibur Rahaman, your people also had to fight a freedom struggle to set yourselves free and establish a Bangladesh. In your freedom struggle, Assam also played a positive and critical role of which I am sure you are fully aware of,” the letter mentioned.
“I believe Chetia has approached your Government volunteering to be repatriated rather than being held in the protective custody anymore. However, upon being made aware that you are seeking a few citizens of your country who are indicted as criminals and currently held by India; like Subrata Bain in exchange of Chetia’s repatriation, I am deeply dismayed that Chetia’s requests has been used as bargaining tool for getting hands on Bangladeshi criminals currently in India,” said the letter.
“Chetia is not a criminal but the leader of freedom loving people of Assam. Handing him (Chetia) over to colonial administration of India in exchange of criminals of your country would be a great humiliation and will hurt sentiments of people of Assam,” the Ulfa chairman said in the letter, which was dated July 15, 2013.
“Therefore, I would like to request you that Chetia be given an honourable and decent repatriation from the country where he sought refuge to carry on the liberation struggle of Assam,” said Abhizeet Asom in his letter.