India, Bangladesh Home Secretaries to hold talks tomorrow

Dhaka: Senior officials of Bangladesh and Indian Home Ministries on Monday reviewed internal security and cross-border issues and set the agenda of tomorrow's Home Secretary-level talks, which comes days after deportation of wanted ULFA leader Anup Chetia from Dhaka.

"The JWG (Joint Working Group) level meeting was held on Monday to set the agenda of Tuesday's Home Secretary-level talks," a Bangladesh Home Ministry spokesman said.

He did not provide the details of the JWG meeting but said a news briefing was expected following the talks between Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Mohammad Mozammel Haque Khan.

Joint Secretary MA Ganapathy led a 12-member Indian delegation while additional secretary AHM Rahmatul Munim led a 15-member Bangladeshi delegation.

According to the spokesman, both the delegations comprised representatives of the paramilitary border forces, police, customs and foreign offices of the two countries.

Officials earlier said killing of Bangladeshi citizens at borders, extradition of wanted people, mostly gangsters who took refuge in India, and cross-boundary crimes were likely to dominate the Bangladesh side agenda in the talks.

The Indian side is likely to focus more on issues of cattle smuggling and illegal infiltration, they said.  Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said in September that about 20-22 lakh cattle used to be smuggled every year to Bangladesh and it has come down to 2 to 2.5 lakh cattle this year.

The HS-level meeting comes days after deportation of ULFA 'general secretary' Chetia from Bangladesh and subsequent deportation of one of the most wanted criminals of Bangladesh, Nur Hossain, from India.

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