Before SAARC, Delhi to talk security at Dhaka

Ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit, Union Home Secretary Vinod Duggal will be in Bangladesh for the Home Secretary level dialogue between November 3 and 5. He will convey New Delhi’s security concerns and much of what follows will depend on the response he gets from his counterpart Safar Raj Hossain.

While Dhaka has assured India on the Prime Minister’s security cover, BDR chief Jahangir Alam Choudhary’s comments have made a dent. The BDR chief had openly blamed New Delhi for the blasts across the country on August 17. Though India has diplomatically lodged a protest with Bangladesh against Choudhary’s statement, it also knows that the BNP government cannot take to task its partner Jamaat-e-Islami for reasons of political survival.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, has already ordered further tightening of security at the border and the airport following the blasts. Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said the summit would be held on schedule.

Duggal, it is understood, will also take up the issue of arms seizure at Chittagong port in Bangladesh in 2004, where eight trucks of arms meant for extremist outfits in the north-east were seized from the government owned jetty.