WB safe haven for anti-India elements

CALCUTTA, Feb 28: The West Bengal Government is worried over reports that some political leaders of Bangladesh known for their anti-India positions have of late chosen Calcutta for secret confabulations in the wake of fresh political turmoil in that country. Intelligence sources believe criminals involved in political killings in Bangladesh are finding easy shelter in the state. In the latest incident, several killers of Kazi Aref Ahmad and four other leaders of the Jatiya Samajtantric Dal, a Left-wing party which has a minister in the Bangla Government, have come over. They were believed to have been hiding in the North 24 Parganas district of Bengal that is near the border.

A prominent leader of a major political party in Bangladesh was said to have met the criminals recently in West Bengal. According to intelligence sources, high-profile Bangladeshi leaders who recently visited Calcutta and other parts of West Bengal in January and February included Reaz Rehman, the foreign secretary in the Khaleda ZiaGovernment. Two central committee members of Khaleda Zia8217;s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Salauddin Qader Choudhury and Morshed Khan, also visited Calcutta.

An intelligence official of the Calcutta police said that Bangladeshi groups and leaders were known to have held such secret parleys in the past in Singapore, Bangkok or Hong Kong.

Of late, they are holding these sessions occasionally in Calcutta. But the West Bengal Government could not bar their entries into West Bengal if the Centre issued them visas, the intelligence official added. Sources in the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission here confirmed that these many had visited Calcutta.