Dhaka: The Bangladesh High Court on Tuesday
asked the government to submit a report within six weeks on
what steps it has taken to bring back 189 Bangladeshi
nationals, who are reportedly languishing in an Indian jail.
A High Court bench comprising judges Mirza Hussain
Haidar and Mohammad Nuruzzaman issued the rule asking the
foreign and home ministries to reply in six weeks why their
"inertia should not be declared illegal and contrary to the
fundamental rights of the people".
The director general of foreign ministry`s South Asia
wing and the joint secretary in charge of political desk of
the home ministry were also ordered to submit reports on steps
they took so far in bringing back the Bangladeshis from the
prisons of Andman island.
The court orders came on a writ under public interest
litigation filed by a Supreme Court lawyer following a
newspaper report.
Approached for comments, home ministry`s joint
secretary Kamaluddin Ahmed said that their primary
investigations found the said inmates in Andaman jail are
"non-Bangladeshis" but further enquiries were underway to
confirm their identities.
"They are unlikely to be Bangladeshi nationals...we,
however, will reply to the High Court rule in due time," Ahmed
said.
Bangladesh and India last year signed an agreement
that allowed inmates of the respective countries serving jail
terms in each others prisons to serve the rest of their terms
to jails in their own countries, if they wanted.
PTI
