BNP on Wednesday sought an explanation from the government over the report of an Indian daily that India’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has arrested a Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI agent from a Bangladesh airport.
“A report of Indian English daily The Times of India about picking up an ISI agent by RAW from a Bangladesh airport has been published in today’s Prothom Alo. We seek an explanation from the government in this regard,” said BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
He continued: “If The Times of India’s news is true, we want to know from the government how come the intelligence agency of a country can apprehend the agent of another country’s intelligence agency agent. How did the intelligence agency men of other countries enter Bangladesh? Whether the government has no information about it?” The BNP spokesman was addressing a meeting arranged by Swechchhasebak Dal at the Jatiya Press Club, demanding the release of its president Habibun Nabi Khan Sohel.
Earlier on Tuesday, The Times of India reported that a small mistake on part of the ISI in preparing passport for Indian Mujahideen’s (IM) Pakistani operative Zia-ur Rehman alias Waqas landed him in the net of Indian agencies.
Waqas had been hiding in Bangladesh and was supposed to leave for Pakistan via Nepal when he was apprehended by India’s external intelligence agency RAW.
When Waqas reached the airport, Bangladesh’s immigration officials discovered that there was no entry stamp on his passport.
Even as they set out to detain him, the commotion attracted the attention of a RAW staffer who swiftly used his smart phone to photograph one of India’s biggest tormentors and relayed it to his superiors, the news paper said.
How the RAW men managed to get Waqas out of the airport and then to India remains unclear, it added. Fakhrul compared the rule of Awami League-led regime with that of noted filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s imaginary tyrant king Hirak Raja.
“The government wants to snatch people’s right to express and hold different opinions and views. “The country is now under an undeclared one-party rule.”
Criticising the government for what he said its growing repressive acts, the BNP leader said Awami League’s now main target is to hang onto power by establishing one-party Baksal rule.
He deplored that media is not duly focusing on the issue of force disappearance. “We get hurt when we see media is not properly publishing the news about force disappearances. Making people disappeared is a dangerous crime against humanity.”
Fakhrul again defended party senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman’s recent remarks about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, saying Tarique statement in London based on facts, documents.
“He (Tarique) he has dug out those information from different history books on the Liberation War. The reactions of Awami League leaders to Tarique’s statement suggest that they have got unnerved.” – UNB
State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said he came to know from newspapers that an Indian external agency whisked off a Pakistani spy from Dhaka.
“I don’t know about the matter,” he told reporters on Wednesday at the Secretariat.
According to a ‘Times of India’ report, Zia-ur Rehman alias Waqas had been hiding in Bangladesh and was supposed to leave for Pakistan via Nepal when he was apprehended by India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Indian security sources quoted by the newspaper said they were clueless about Waqas’ exact location. They said they had considered the possibility of Waqas hiding in Bangladesh.
Waqas was reportedly an ISI agent who oversaw the Indian Mujahideen operations in India.
Bangladesh immigration officials in Dhaka detained him and the RAW came to know of it, according to the report.
Soon, there was a request to hand over Waqas to Indian officials as he was indeed the terrorist wanted in India for a string of bomb blasts.
The ‘Times of India’ says Waqas was spirited away from Dhaka but does not elaborate how.
Minister Kamal said the government was looking into the matter.
“We have an extradition treaty with them (India),” he said.
Bangladesh signed a treaty with India to pave the way for exchange of convicts or on-trial criminals between the countries.
There was no official word from Dhaka on Waqas’ arrest. – bdnews24.com
