ULFA urges Sheikh Hasina to release Anup Chetia

The anti-talk faction of the ULFA has urged Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to give "an honourable and decent repatriation" to its jailed `general secretary` Anup Chetia.

Guwahati: The anti-talk faction of the ULFA has urged Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to give "an honourable and decent repatriation" to its jailed `general secretary` Anup Chetia.

In a letter to Hasina, the faction`s `chairman` Abhizeet Asom wrote, "I believe Chetia has approached your government volunteering to be repatriated rather than being held in protective custody anymore."
Chetia was arrested on December 21, 1997 in Dhaka under the Foreigners Act and the Passports Act for illegally carrying foreign currencies and a satellite phone and was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by a Bangladeshi court. He was being held at Kashimpur Jail in the outskirts of Dhaka since then.

"However, upon being made aware that you are seeking few citizens of your country who are indicted as criminals and currently held in India like Subrata Bain in exchange of Chetia`s repatriation, I am deeply dismayed that Chetia`s request for voluntary repatriation has been used as a bargaining tool in getting hands on Bangladeshi criminals currently in India," the letter said.

"Gleaning various recent news reports, it is probably true that your government is at the final stage of repatriating Chetia, who patiently waited for so many years to get political asylum in your country."

"Therefore, I request you that Anup Chetia be given an honourable and decent repatriation from the country where he sought refuge to carry on the liberation struggle of Assam," Asom wrote.

PTI

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