ID :
36568
Fri, 12/19/2008 - 20:38
Auther :
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http://m.oananews.org//node/36568
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Jailed ULFA leader in B'desh seeks asylum in 'safe country'
New Delhi, Dec 19 (PTI) A top leader of United Liberation
Front of Asom (ULFA)--an outlawed organisation in India--,
detained for over 10 years in Bangladesh, has appealed to the
UN to grant him refugee status and political asylum in a 'safe
country' in the event of his release from prison.
"Spending 10 years and eight months in Bangladesh prison
has taken its toll. I am craving for a normal existence.
However, I appreciate that my life is not safe even in
Bangladesh if I am allowed to leave the four walls of the
prison safety (sic)," Anup Chetia wrote in a letter to the
Geneva-based United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR).
Therefore, I am appealing to you for the kind and
considered intervention of your esteemed office for granting
me a refugee status and political asylum in a safe country,"
Chetia wrote in the letter to UNHCR.
"I am being held in the Kashimpur Jail in the outskirts
of Bangladesh capital Dhaka. The irony is that I am no longer
a convict to be held in a jail as I had completed my seven
years of imprisonment for entering Bangladesh illegally
carrying foreign currencies and a satellite phone," he said in
his letter to UNHCR High Commissioner Antonio Guterres.
"India has been pressurising Bangladesh government from
the very beginning of my arrest in this country to hand me
over to them. But as I have denounced my Indian nationality
and there is no extradition treaty between the two countries,
Bangladesh has so far rejected India's request," he wrote.
In another letter to UNHCR's Bangladesh office, Chetia's
solicitor Muhammad Abdus Sattar said the ULFA general
secretary should not be handed over to Indian authorities and
requested the UN body to "arrange his asylum in any possible
country to save his life".
Anup Chetia is at present under the protective custody of
the Bangladesh government and is fighting for his life.
Apprehending his possible handing over to Indian
authorities he had applied for a political asylum to the
Bangladesh government which has summarily rejected his prayer.
A human rights organisation in Bangladesh has filed a
writ petition in the Bangladesh Supreme Court against the
rejection.
Informing about the petition, Sattar elaborates
"Bangladesh Supreme Court had asked the government why Anup
Chetia shouldn't be given asylum and the ruling has not yet
been disposed of. The case is pending in the court."
He said Dhaka is preparing to hand over Chetia to India
"very soon" following "terrible pressure" from New Delhi.
"Considering the gravity of the situation I would
earnestly solicit your kind, effective and swift intervention
so that Anup Chetia is not handed over to Indian authorities
and would request you to take further trouble to arrange his
asylum in any possible country to save his life," Sattar
wrote. PTI ZMN
SAK
NNNN
Front of Asom (ULFA)--an outlawed organisation in India--,
detained for over 10 years in Bangladesh, has appealed to the
UN to grant him refugee status and political asylum in a 'safe
country' in the event of his release from prison.
"Spending 10 years and eight months in Bangladesh prison
has taken its toll. I am craving for a normal existence.
However, I appreciate that my life is not safe even in
Bangladesh if I am allowed to leave the four walls of the
prison safety (sic)," Anup Chetia wrote in a letter to the
Geneva-based United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR).
Therefore, I am appealing to you for the kind and
considered intervention of your esteemed office for granting
me a refugee status and political asylum in a safe country,"
Chetia wrote in the letter to UNHCR.
"I am being held in the Kashimpur Jail in the outskirts
of Bangladesh capital Dhaka. The irony is that I am no longer
a convict to be held in a jail as I had completed my seven
years of imprisonment for entering Bangladesh illegally
carrying foreign currencies and a satellite phone," he said in
his letter to UNHCR High Commissioner Antonio Guterres.
"India has been pressurising Bangladesh government from
the very beginning of my arrest in this country to hand me
over to them. But as I have denounced my Indian nationality
and there is no extradition treaty between the two countries,
Bangladesh has so far rejected India's request," he wrote.
In another letter to UNHCR's Bangladesh office, Chetia's
solicitor Muhammad Abdus Sattar said the ULFA general
secretary should not be handed over to Indian authorities and
requested the UN body to "arrange his asylum in any possible
country to save his life".
Anup Chetia is at present under the protective custody of
the Bangladesh government and is fighting for his life.
Apprehending his possible handing over to Indian
authorities he had applied for a political asylum to the
Bangladesh government which has summarily rejected his prayer.
A human rights organisation in Bangladesh has filed a
writ petition in the Bangladesh Supreme Court against the
rejection.
Informing about the petition, Sattar elaborates
"Bangladesh Supreme Court had asked the government why Anup
Chetia shouldn't be given asylum and the ruling has not yet
been disposed of. The case is pending in the court."
He said Dhaka is preparing to hand over Chetia to India
"very soon" following "terrible pressure" from New Delhi.
"Considering the gravity of the situation I would
earnestly solicit your kind, effective and swift intervention
so that Anup Chetia is not handed over to Indian authorities
and would request you to take further trouble to arrange his
asylum in any possible country to save his life," Sattar
wrote. PTI ZMN
SAK
NNNN
