The Hindu : National : Hasina calls for strengthening India-Bangladesh relations

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Monday, Jun 26, 2006

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Hasina calls for strengthening India-Bangladesh relations

Special Correspondent

Fears electoral malpractices by BNP in next year's parliamentary elections

Kolkata: There is a need to strengthen bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India and her party, the Awami League, would accord priority to this need if voted back to power, the former Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, said here on Sunday. However, She feared that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party would resort to electoral malpractices in next year's parliamentary elections to stay on in power.

"I am afraid that the BNP Government will again resort to electoral malpractices to cling on to power in next year's parliamentary elections in my country," Ms. Hasina said during a brief visit to the city.

Ms. Hasina said she was confident that her party would be returned to power but "only if the elections were held in a free and fair manner" and the electorate cast its votes freely.

On India's concerns over insurgents setting up camps in Bangladesh, she said: "Terrorism is a global phenomenon and Bangladesh is no exception." She and her party workers too were victims of terrorist attacks in August 2005, she recalled.

Ms. Hasina also called on veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu at his residence and later said that they discussed bilateral relations between the two countries.

"I acknowledge with gratitude Jyoti Basu's contribution to finalising the Indo-Bangladesh water shearing treaty during my tenure as Prime Minister," she said.

Mr. Basu said he shared with the former Prime Minister thoughts about his association with her father, Sheikh Mujibar Rehman, and his role in the liberation of Bangladesh.

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