India has asked Bangladesh to destroy 172 camps run by northeastern insurgents in its territory and to apprehend 103 militants including top United Liberation Front of Asom leaders based in that country, officials said on Thursday.
The Border Security Force provided the Bangladesh Rifles with lists of the rebel camps and militants and sought strong action against Indian insurgents operating from Bangladeshi territory during the three-day coordination meeting between border guards of the two countries that ended in Shillong on Thursday.
The list of 103 militants included ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, its general secretary Anup Chetia and top leaders of insurgent groups like both factions of the NSCN, NDFB, ATTF, NLFT, KYKL, PLA, HNLC and ANVC.
"We asked them to take appropriate action against them," S K Dutta, BSF's inspector general for the Tripura, Cachar and Mizoram frontier, told a press conference in Shillong after the meeting.
In a departure from the trend during similar meetings in the recent past, the BDR did not give any list of anti-social elements and their hideouts in India.
"This time the BDR has not given us any list," said Dutta. At the last meeting, the BDR had given a list of 79 "camps" in Tripura and 10 in West Bengal.
Asked how he viewed this development, Dutta, who led the Indian side during the meeting, said the discussions were "fruitful" and the BDR "appeared to be more receptive and reciprocating" to the BSF's suggestions.
