New visa pact, extradition treaty with B'desh in offing

A liberalised visa agreement and extradition treaty are likely to be signed between India and Bangladesh during Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde's three-day visit to Dhaka beginning January 28.

The new visa pact, named revised travel arrangement, will remove restrictions on visit of each other's businesspersons, senior citizens above 65 years and children below 12 years on the lines of the new visa regime between India and Pakistan.

While draft of the visa agreement has been approved by both the governments, the long-awaited extradition treaty was yet to be cleared by the Union Cabinet after its minor modification by the Bangladesh government.

"We hope, both the treaties will be signed during the home minister's visit to Bangladesh," a home ministry official said Monday.

The extradition treaty, if signed, will pave the way for deportation of jailed ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia and many other insurgents from the northeast who have been hiding in Bangladesh.

Similarly, it will also help Dhaka in getting back its criminals who are currently lodged in Indian jails.

India has been pressing for Chetia's deportation for long. The ULFA militant has been in a Dhaka jail following his arrest in 1997 on the charge of entering Bangladesh without valid documents.

He had, however, moved court seeking asylum in Bangladesh on security reason, making it 'legally' difficult for Dhaka to execute New Delhi's demand.