Dhaka, Nov 11 (UNB) – Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Ulfa leader Anup Chetia, who had been in Bangladeshi jail since his arrest in 1997, returned to India on Wednesday morning through a border point after being freed from Kashimpur jail on completion of his jail term. The minister came up with the disclosure while talking to reporters at a press briefing at the Secretariat following a rumour centering a report by India’s official news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) about the Ulfa leader’s handover. Two associates of Chetia were also released and they left the country with him, he added. Asked about the handover process, the minister said, “I don’t know how he (Chetia) went to India.” However, as he crossed the border to reach India, it was done through BGB and BSF, the minister said adding, “If you think it a handover, then it’s a handover.” “After the end of Chetia’s jail term, we contacted the Indian High Commission about his release,” said the Home minister. Sought comments whether the government sent back Chetia under any pressure of the Indian government, the minister replied in negative and said when any foreign prisoner wants to go back to his/her country they are allowed to do that. However, he (Chetia) himself wanted to return to his country, Asaduzzaman said. Earlier in the morning, PTI ran a report claiming that ‘Ulfa leader Anup Chetia was handed over by Bangladesh to India’. Following the PTI report, several Bangladeshi media outlets published several reports on the issue. Anup Chetia, Ulfa ‘general secretary’ had been arrested from Mohammadpur area of Dhaka on December 21, 1997 for trespassing Bangladesh. Chetia is wanted in several cases of terrorism, including the killing of a superintendent of police. Chetia, whose real name is Golap Baruah, is the brain behind the birth of Ulfa in 1979 and is Paresh Baruah’s cousin brother.
