Agartala: Bangladesh and India will jointly fight terrorism and armed separatists, former Bangladesh foreign minister and chairperson of the Parliamentary Board of Foreign Affairs Dipu Moni said.
“Dhaka will not leave any stones unturned in its capacity to crush religious fundamentalism in the subcontinent. The two nations have a history of fighting insurgents of India trying to use the soil of Bangladesh and the terrorists trying to use Indian soil,” she said at a privately hosted celebration of the 45th Bangladesh Vijay Diwas at Agartala Press Club here on Friday night.
Moni said, Dhaka has repeatedly proved its point on its tough stand against harbouring N-E insurgents by arresting and extraditing rebel leaders of different N-E insurgent outfits including ULFA’s Anup Chetia, Arabinda Rajkhowa, Shashadhar Choudhury, Chitraban Hazarika, ATTF’s Ranjit Debbarma and NLFT’s Biswamohan Debbarma.
“The two neighbouring nations have a shared history of cooperation and coexistence since the inception of Bangladesh as a sovereign nation. The two nations had shared a lot under the leadership of incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed and the Government of India,” she said.
Citing examples of peaceful resolution of international water boundary between the two nations, successful land swap agreement, and agreement for power trading from Tripura’s thermal power plant at Palatana among other shared successes, she said, Dhaka expected further achievements in the days to come.
Drawing reference from the recent incidents of attacks on Hindus in different parts of Bangladesh, the former foreign minister said her government was active, as always, to check any incident that might pose a threat to the safety and security of India.
The former minister said Bangladesh, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was committed to be a secular, democratic and anti-discrimination state. She assured that anybody who violates the law in Bangladesh will be punished as per law, irrespective of their political or financial influence. Speaking on achieved progress and future aspirations of her country, Dipu Moni on Saturday said Bangladesh was a vibrant nation these days, realising all its possibilities.
“Our country does not have any more starvation-induced deaths, people do not have to stay bare-body, our children are covered under institutional education and the state is now offering free medication on as many as 30 diseases apart from providing quality health care facilities to everybody,” she said. Mentioning the contribution of Tripura in the Liberation War of Bangladesh she said the Liberation would not be possible, had not the state of 14 lakh people welcomed 17 lakh refugees.
“Agartala was the war capital of our warriors during those days,” she said. (PTI)
