None did as much for India’s northeast as Bangladesh: Ex-NSG chief

A former director general of India's elite National Security Guard (NSG) has commended Bangladesh's "amazing" cooperation to help India contain insurgency issues in the country's north-eastern states.

The security issues India had in its northeast region has been "controlled and managed" partly because of the immense help provided by Bangladesh, former NSG DG Jayanto Narayan Choudhury said.

"At all levels, Bangladesh has so far been an outstanding and amazing partner of India on security issues. No one has done as much for the northeast as Bangladesh," he said.

Choudhury was speaking at a programme in Kolkata to mark the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's independence at the Presidency University, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Terming Bangladesh as an "outstanding partner" of India on security issues, he said "all the trouble we had in the northeast has been controlled and managed, partly because of Bangladesh. After we started tracking down shelters (of insurgents), almost every state in the northeast is now in peace."

"When I was posted in Calcutta for five to six years, the informal help given by the Rapid Action Battalion of Bangladesh... I have no words to express my gratitude," Choudhury said.

Choudhury also pitched for easy movement of people between the Bangladesh and India, pointing to the shared cross-border culture.

Retied diplomat Sarvajit Chakravarti, who was once posted in the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, said India and Bangladesh need to collaborate on a host of issues of common concern, including disaster management.

"We need to devise ways which will allow people to move between the countries without too much of a problem – by means of national identification cards, without visas and passports," he said.

Bangladesh Deputy High Commission Counsellor Sikder Mohammad Ashrafur Rahaman said the country aims to be a developing nation by 2026, and by 2041, it would strive to become a developed country.