Delhi to press Dhaka for extradition treaty

The three-day ninth home-secretary level meeting between Bangladesh and India begins in Dhaka Friday, with New Delhi likely to press for an extradition treaty to exchange criminals hiding in each other's territory to escape arrest at home.
Bangladesh has, however, consistently maintained that such a treaty must take in all Saarc countries.
"India is keen to sign an extradition treaty with Bangladesh only, but Dhaka is not interested as the treaty should involve all members of the regional forum," said a foreign ministry official.
In 2002, India sought Dhaka's cooperation in mutual legal assistance, counter-terrorism and extradition.
The foreign ministry official said Saarc leaders at their recent summit in Colombo signed an agreement on mutual legal cooperation and counter-terrorism, covering the extradition issue.
"Since a multi-lateral agreement is already in place, Bangladesh is assessing whether there is any need for a bilateral one with India on exchange of criminals," he said.
Dhaka reckons that criminals could be also exchanged in goodwill gestures.
“India has so far handed over six Bangladeshi criminals. It means that they can nab the other thugs and hand them over to us," a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) official told this newspaper on Monday.
Bangladesh handed over an updated list of 1,648 Bangladeshi criminals hiding in India at the director-general level border conference between BDR and BSF held in Dhaka recently. The Indian side gave a list of 464 Indian criminals.
A BDR official said the number of Bangladeshi criminals taking shelter in India is on the rise as the Indian government is not willing to hand them over on the plea of not having an extradition treaty.
According to a BDR intelligence report, some criminal groups are operating against Bangladesh from within India. Lists of such groups and locations of their camps were given to the Indian authorities at the previous home-secretary level talks.
A broad range of issues relating to border disputes is expected to be discussed at the upcoming meeting.
Cross-border terrorism, trafficking of children and women, smuggling of illicit arms and drugs, water sharing and killings on the border will figure high at the talks.
The issues were discussed at length at the BDR-BSF conference. BSF then apologised for the indiscriminate killings of Bangladeshis on the border.
The meeting will also pore over the implementation of the Land Boundary Agreement 1974, demarcation of 6.5 kilometres of borderlands and exchange of enclaves.
Home Secretary Abdul Karim and Indian Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta will lead their side.