India to take up rebel camps issue with Bangladesh
GUWAHATI, Sept 11: India said on Saturday it would raise the issue of Indian rebels allegedly operating from bases in neighbouring Bangladesh during high-level talks in Dhaka next week.
"Security concerns will be our top-most priority," India's high commissioner to Bangladesh, Veena Sikri, told reporters in Guwahati, the main city in northeastern Assam state.
She said India also would seek to discuss the alleged illegal entry of Bangladeshi nationals into India. "Issues relating to terrorist bases and problems of infiltration will be taken up during the meeting."
New Delhi says Indian separatist rebels stage hit-and-run attacks on targets in the revolt-racked northeast from up to 150 camps in Bangladesh but Dhaka denies the country shelters any Indian militants.
The envoy's comments came just ahead of a trip by an Indian delegation led by home secretary Dhirendra Singh to Dhaka next week. Singh will hold talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart, the first exchange of its kind in four years.
New Delhi has suggested joint patrols by Indian and Bangladeshi troops to stop the alleged movement of militants and illegal immigration but Dhaka has repeatedly rebuffed the idea.
India and Bangladesh share a 4,095-kilometre border.-AFP
