Saleem Samad
Bangladesh Foreign Ministry has sought explanation from the Indian Foreign Ministry regarding West Bengal's Trinamool Congress links with Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh to destabilise Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, a source in foreign office said yesterday.
Dhaka has raised the issue with New Delhi, seeking detail explanation on whether Trinamool Congress has diverted funds from Sarada group  - as reported in the Indian media ? to trigger and fund violence against Bangladesh government.
"West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is facing embarrassment over the issue after Rajnath Singh, Central Home Minister, hinted that a probe is on, following a prod from Dhaka," said an official in foreign office.
Bangladesh would likely to ask New Delhi government to take action against whoever is involved in the deadly conspiracy to destabilise the Awami League-led government, the source told the Daily Observer.
The issue will be definitely raised and discussed during Bangladesh-India third Joint Consultative Commission's (JCC) meeting in Delhi on September 20 and also during bilateral meeting between Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmud Ali and his counterpart Sushma Swaraj, said the official.
Mahmud Ali, however, declined to elaborate on the issue when Daily Observer reached him on the phone Tuesday evening.
The FM instead asked the correspondent to raise the question for discussion at the official press briefing at foreign office today, which would be addressed by the Foreign Minister.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata Abida Islam called on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, amid speculation that the two would discuss the alleged link of Trinamool Congress leader Ahmed Hassan Imran, MP, with the Jamaat.
Neither Abida nor Mamata dislosed what they discussed to the media, an Indian radio journalist in Kolkata told the Daily Observer by telephone.
The Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner, however, said her farewell call with the Chief Minister was very warm and cordial, the Kolkata journalist said. Abida is due to end her diplomatic stint in Kolkata soon. Meanwhile, India's leading Bangla daily 'Ananda Bazar Patrika' has blown the lid off the links between Jamaat-e-Islami party which opposed the Bangladesh independence and Trinamool Congress which is led by Mamata, thus opening a Pandora's box for the Mamata government in West Bengal.
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Hassan Imran is alleged to have provided money raised from the Saradha chit fund company to Jamaat to wage a violent anti-government campaign in Bangladesh.
The popular Kolkata newspaper alleged that Mamata's election had been funded by anti-Bangladesh radical group Jamaat and her party received funds from the outfit during 2011 assembly and 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The Ananda Bazar Patrika report quoted extensively from a detailed report it claims was given to India by Bangladesh intelligence.
Shahriar Kabir, a rights activists demanding maximum punishment for war criminals, told The Daily Observer: "There is no doubt that Ahmed Hassan Imran was co-founder of Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and he has had close connections with the Jamaat, which planned to overthrow an elected government."
Kabir expressed his surprise how senior ministers of the West Bengal government can protect him by saying that he is being targeted because he is a Muslim.
However, Imran denied the accusations and told The Telegraph yesterday: "I left Simi in 1984 and I have nothing to do with the Jamaat."