January 9, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 5, 1423

DHAKA, Jan 8: Bangladesh on Wednesday rejected an Indian claim that 20 million Bangladeshis were living in India illegally.

“There are no illegal Bangladeshis anywhere in India. The claim of 20 millions Bangladeshis illegally living in India is absurd and has no basis whatsoever,” Foreign Secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury told the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), the state-run news agency.

On Tuesday the Indian interior ministry said in a statement that “Delhi will launch a drive this year to deport more than 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants considered to pose a security threat to India”.

“It’s nothing more than an inspired anti-Bangladesh propaganda ploy done from time to time, seeking to project Bangladesh in a negative light internationally,” the foreign secretary said.

The secretary also said those who had crossed over into India during the 1971 crisis, had come back immediately after the inception of Bangladesh under a repatriation programme conducted and supervised by the two countries.