Bangladeshi law enforcement and intelligence officials said a manhunt was underway for an Indian militant leader in line with requests from the West Bengal police, but they could not track him down yet, official reports said on Tuesday.
Elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion and Criminal Investigation Department officials said they were hunting down Jibon Singh, a suspected leader of Assam-based militant group Kamtapur Liberation Organisation.
"We do not have any confirmed clue yet if he is in Bangladesh," a RAB spokesman told PTI.
The Daily Star newspaper quoting CID officials said West Bengal CID sent a letter to their Bangladesh counterparts in December 2007 for Singh's arrest and deportation in exchange for Bangladeshi criminals captured in India.
They said they received from their Indian counterparts documents of cases filed against Singh which were circulated among police stations across Bangladesh.
The CID official said Singh was accused in at least seven cases filed in connection with murder, detonating explosives, illegal arms and subversive activities in India.
RAB's additional Director General Colonel Gulzar Uddin Ahmed told the Star that they checked out all the links given by a detained Bangladeshi artefact smuggler, believed to have links with Singh, but no headway could be made yet to confirm his stay in the country.
Despite the absence of any extradition treaty between two nations, West Bengal authorities deported eight criminals in the past several months, while officials said the process was underway to deport three other Bangladeshi gangsters detained in India.
"Jibon Singh is a big fish compared to Bangladeshi criminals arrested in India," a CID official said.