Bangladesh hands over Ulfa top leaders to India

Guwahati, Dec. 2: The police in Bangladesh has picked up the Ulfa’s deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah from the suburbs of Dhaka. Disclosing that two top Ulfa leaders, Ulfa chairman Arbinda Rajkhowa and Baruah, will be handed over to India in a day or two, an authoritative security sources told this newspaper that because of some technical reasons their handing over may be delayed by a day or two.

However, agency reports indicate that both the arrested leaders have been handed over to India and they have been flown to Delhi.

Security sources said that the process has started to hand over at least three Ulfa rebels to India. The sources clarified that the third Ulfa rebel was acting as a helping hand to the Ulfa chairman. In the absence of any extradition treaty, the authorities are working out modalities for their smooth transfer into the hands of security forces in India.

Security sources, claiming the detention of two top Ulfa leaders as a major breakthrough on insurgency front in Assam, attributed it to a consistent policy of the home ministry to go after the separatist outfits.

The home secretary, Mr G.K. Pillai, and his Bangladeshi counterpart, Mr Abdus Sobhan Sikder, who is currently in India, said they do not have official confirmation of Rajkhowa’s detention.

“Because I am away from the country, I do not have such information till now,” Mr Sikdersaid. “We also have no official information of arrest of Arabinda Rajkhowa in Bangladesh or anywhere else”.

The home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, said in Parliament that he was expecting a political statement from the Ulfa.