A major test for India-Bangladesh relations is on the cards. On Feb. 25, Golap Baruah alias Anup Chetia will be released from a Dhaka jail. New Delhi is dying to get Chetia extradited. But will Dhaka oblige?
| I tend to doubt it. How about you? |
Very unlikely. Chetia is one of India's most wanted men. One of the founders and general secretary of the banned United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), Chetia was arrested in Dhaka with a fake passport and satellite telephone in 1997. India has been demanding his deportation for eight years. But Dhaka refuses to deliver the ULFA chief on one ground or the other. There is every likelihood that Chetia will go scot-free after his release —like Sanjit Deb Burman, another top separatist leader from India's insurgency-wracked northeast, who was jailed in Bangladesh. He vanished after his release, much to India's disappointment. India-Bangladesh relations, already plagued by long-standing mistrust of each other's intentions, is now in tatters after New Delhi's refusal to attend a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Dhaka from Feb. 6 to 8. India cited the law and order situation in Bangladesh to stay away. |