Dhaka-New Delhi collaboration will play a key role in maintaining law and order in the India-Bangladesh border region, as the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gears up for the possible execution of one of the most important 1971 war crimes accused, Motiur Rahman Nizami.
“We have noticed that several terror attacks in recent months were aimed at preventing our government from allowing the smooth functioning of the courts dealing with war crimes,” a source from Bangladesh told The Hindu, pointing to the suspected links between the recent spate of terror-related incidents in that country and the ongoing war crimes trial in Dhaka. He said that the crackdown on terrorists in Bangladesh would continue simultaneously with the war crime trials.
Nizami, who has appealed against his death sentence, is accused of playing a key role in the 1971 genocide. He is the current chief of Jamaat-e-Islami and had founded the Al Badr group, which carried out atrocities during the Liberation War of Bangladesh. Given the large scale following of JEI in the orthodox sections of Bangladesh, the coming month will be critical for Bangladesh when the trial of Nizami is expected to be concluded.
Though India has not officially commented on the recent executions of war crimes accused, it is generally understood that India supports Bangladesh’s quest to bring the accused to justice.
Meanwhile, the two countries have conducted two Secretary-level meetings on important issues. On November 16, talks were held between the Home Ministries of both countries in the backdrop of the exchange of terror masterminds such as Anup Chetia and Nur Hossein.
ADB aid On Saturday, the two countries concluded talks on power sharing. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged to increase funding of the India-Bangladesh electricity transmission plan and talks in Delhi focused on adding 500 mW to the Bangladeshi plan of purchasing power from India.
To cover the multiple sectors like security, power generation and anti-terror cooperation, the Foreign Secretaries of both sides are expected to meet before the year-end, said Bangladesh High Commissioner Syed Muazzem Ali.
The real aim of the series of high level talks being held, Mr.Ali said, was to prepare the ground for the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India, indicating that the Foreign Secretary-level talks would prepare the meeting ground on key issues.
