ULFA leader Anup Chetia gets 3-year jail term in Bangladesh

GUWAHATI, February 18: Anup Chetia, general secretary of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), currently under detention in Bangladesh, was on Sunday convicted by a Dhaka court and sentenced to three years in jail for illegal possession of foreign currencies of as many as 16 countries. Reports from Dhaka said Mohammad Humayun Kabir, the special tribunal judge, also fined Chetia alias Golap Barua 5,000 Bangladeshi taka or about $92 in addition to the three-year prison term involving 'hard labour.' Chetia, now 50, was arrested by Bangladesh immigration and security officials from downtown Dhaka's North Adabor locality on December 21, 1997. He has since been lodged at the high-security Dhaka central jail. The main charges against the Indian separatist leader has been illegal entry into Bangladesh, possession of two forged Bangladeshi passports (No 0964185 and 0227883), possession of an unauthorised satellite telephone and illegal possession of foreign currency of countries as diverse as the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Thailand, Phillipines, Spain, Nepal, Bhutan, Belgium, Singapore and others. Two other accomplices, Babul Sharma and Laxmi Prasad, were also arrested along with Chetia on December 21, 1997. On Sunday, however, both Sharma and Prasad, were acquitted. Bangladesh's official news agency BSS quoted Chetia as saying he would appeal his conviction before the Bangladesh High Court. Chetia had earlier pleaded guilty of illegal entry into Bangladesh. His counsel Alena Khan had earlier told The Newspaper Today that Chetia admitted to illegal entry into Bangladesh saying that he was fighting a 'freedom struggle' in Assam and had to flee to Bangladesh to escape the Indian security forces. The ULFA, formed in April 1979, is fighting for a 'sovereign, socialist Assam' and is engaged in a bush-war with the Indian state. New Delhi has declared the outfit as an outlawed organisation. India and Bangladesh do not have an extradition treaty. But New Delhi has been mounting pressure on Dhaka to hand Chetia over to Indian authorities for trial on several heinous charges. India wants Chetia handed over on the strength of supposedly 'good neighbourly relations' between the two nations. The India-friendly Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina is unlikely to heed New Delhi's pleas as the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) loses no opportunity to project her as an 'Indian stooge,' a charge which the Awami League strongly denies. What will Bangladesh do to the ULFA leader once his prison term gets over? This is a million-dollar question. Whether Dhaka lets Chetia walk out free after his jail term is over or hands him over to Indian authorities remains to be seen.