Bangladesh, India agree draft extradition treaty, counterterrorism

Sep 7, 2011, 16:47 GMT

Dhaka - India and Bangladesh on Wednesday agreed to draft an extradition treaty that will allow Bangladesh to deport Indian insurgents being held in its jails.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who met in Dhaka, said both countries would cooperate in the area of counterterrorism.

In New Delhi, 11 people died and 76 were wounded on Wednesday after a bomb attack outside the High Court. Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami, an Islamist militant group based in Pakistan and Bangladesh and linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Hasina said, 'Any act of terrorism is unacceptable, criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of (its) motivation.'

This was the first visit to Bangladesh by an Indian prime minister in more than a decade, and the two countries made some progress on border negotiations, which have long marred relations between the South Asian neighbours.

They failed to reach an agreement on the sharing of waters of the Teesta and Feni, two cross-boundary rivers. Singh said Tuesday: 'Our common rivers need not be sources of discord, but can become the harbingers of prosperity to both our countries.'