Rajnath Singh in Dhaka: Possible to end terror if countries in region join hands, home minister tells Sheikh Hasina

Dhaka: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday held an ’extremely fruitful’ meeting with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the two leaders discussed a range of bilateral issues, including the menace of terrorism. Singh arrived in Dhaka on Friday on a three-day visit. “Had an extremely fruitful meeting with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka. We discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest,” Singh tweeted after his meeting with Hasina at her official residence. “It is possible to uproot militancy and terrorism if all the countries in the region join their hands,” Singh told Hasina. According to a Bangladesh prime minister’s office spokesman Singh also told the prime minister, without naming any country, that the expected collaborative actions were not possible due to some nations in the region. During the meeting, Hasina said that Bangladesh and India had so far settled several outstanding issues, including the land and boundary agreement, through dialogue. “We expect that the other issues will be sorted out through talks as well,” she added. [caption id=“attachment_4742281” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rajnath Singh meets Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka. Twitter/@rajnathsingh[/caption] Hasina reiterated Bangladesh’s stand of not allowing its soil to be used by terrorists to carry out their activities against any other country. Singh thanked Hasina for cooperation in addressing India’s ‘security concerns’ while the two leaders agreed that the joint efforts of the two countries to combat militancy and terrorism have yielded ‘special success’, the Indian high commission said in a statement. It said that the issue of displaced Myanmar residents was also discussed during the meeting. Singh said India was committed to assist Dhaka for ‘quick, safe and permanent return’ of Rohingyas to their own abode, the statement said. He said India was working in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in constructing pre-fabricated houses for them and added that New Delhi would continue to provide succor for those who took refuge in Bangladesh. After his meeting with Hasina, Singh along with his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal inaugurated the largest Indian visa centre in the world at Dhaka’s Jamuna Future Park. The new integrated state-of-the-art Indian Visa Application Centre (IVAC), spread in an 18,500 square feet commercial area, will replace all the existing centres (Motijheel, Uttara, Gulshan and Mirpur Road) in Dhaka in two phases. “The new facility would replace all four existing visa centres in different parts of the (Bangladesh) capital and it will be the lone visa centres to receive applications without any prior appointments,” the Indian High Commission in Dhaka said in a statement. Singh and Kamal jointly inaugurated the ‘Bangladesh-India Friendship Building’ at the Bangladesh Police Academy in northwestern Sardah. The foundation stone of the building was laid in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Hasina. It is a development co-operation project between India and Bangladesh. Bangladeshis constitute one of the largest number of visitors from a single country to India. Last year, India had issued 1.4 million visas to Bangladeshi nationals, BD News reported. Five Bangladeshi citizens were issued visas of different categories to mark the opening of the centre, which has 48 counters and other facilities, including food shops. “The location of the new IVAC inside a spacious and secure shopping mall is expected to provide comfortable and seamless visa services to applicants and is expected to reduce waiting time considerably,” the statement said. During his visit, Singh will co-chair the 6th India-Bangladesh home minister-level talks on Sunday, along with his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.