India has warned Bangladesh of a possible assassination plot targeting the countrys political leadership,including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,during Foreign secretary Shiv Shanker Menons visit to Dhaka early this week. Home Ministry,sources told The Indian Express,said that New Delhi picked up intelligence on this in the form of electronic chatter by terrorist groups active in the neighbourhood in recent weeks. Sources said there was specific intelligence on a plot to target the new Sheikh Hasina Government in those conversations intercepted by Indian intelligence agencies. That prompted India to go ahead and warn the Bangladesh top brass of the threat. Given the sensitivity of the information,Menon himself went to Dhaka to convey the information. The Foreign Secretary met Hasina,Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni,Foreign Secretary Mohammad Touhid Hossain and Bangladesh Army chief General Moin U Ahmed on Monday. Radical and terror groups in Bangladesh have been under pressure after the Sheikh Hasina Government came to power earlier this year. New Delhi and Dhaka have an agreement to share information on counter-terrorism and in this context,Menon exchanged notes with his counterpart on the activities of the radical groups operating in Bangladesh and are suspected to have played a role in the recent BDR massacre. In the first high-level contact with Bangladesh after the February 25 BDR mutiny,India is believed to have emphasised the need to crack down on elements which aim to destabilise peace and security in the two countries in particular and the region as a whole. New Delhi fears that the BDR plot was one of the ways to destabilise the newly-elected Hasina government,which has pledged to act against the terror elements on its soil. This is what is believed to have triggered these radical groups to plan an assassination.
