Extradition treaty draft almost final

Bangladesh and India yesterday moved close to finalising the draft extradition treaty which would facilitate the handing over of riasaldar Mosleuddin, one of the killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
"The talks on the treaty are close to final stage. The two sides will exchange the drafts and come out with their views and changes, if any, very soon," an official said after the first day's meeting of the Joint Working Group here.
While Dhaka seeks Mosleuddin, believed to be hiding in India, to put him on trial in the Bangabandhu killing case, New Delhi argues that it will be easier to hand him over under the extradition treaty, sources privy to the meeting said.
The extradition treaty could also help India get back Ulfa General Secretary Anup Chetia, who is still in a Bangladesh jail after serving his sentence following arrest in 1997 on charge of entering the country without valid documents.
The JWG meeting, where a 14-member Bangladesh delegation was led by Home Secretary Manzoor Hossain, also discussed expediting the implementation of the pact on demarcation of land boundary and exchange of 162 adversely-held enclaves signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka in September, the official said.
The meeting discussed the loopholes and other problems that had cropped up in implementing the accord that resolved a four-decade-old problem which had been a major irritant in bilateral ties.
The Bangladeshi side noted with satisfaction that incidents of firing by Indian security forces on Bangladesh nationals has come down over the last 10 months.
Responding to persistent Bangladesh concern over border firing, Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram had asked the security personnel to exercise maximum restraint while dealing with cross-border crimes like illegal migration and smuggling.
Bangladesh raised the issue of immense difficulties faced by its nationals in getting Indian visa, to which India responded by agreeing to make the whole process less cumbersome and easier, the sources said.
After a break today, the JWG will meet tomorrow when technical experts of the two sides will take up Dhaka's plea for easing the procedure of securing Indian visa for Bangladeshis.
A Joint Statement is likely to be issued after tomorrow's meeting.
Cross-border movement of criminals and terrorists, exchange of Indian and Bangladeshi prisoners in each other's even after serving their sentence, border management, illegal migration, human trafficking and narcotics smuggling also came up for discussion at yesterday's meeting .
It also deliberated on exchange of information on arrested persons.
The meeting discussed how to check the growing nexus between extremist outfits of the two countries.
The issue gained urgency as Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh had also discussed it when they met on the sidelines of the Saarc summit in the Maldives recently.