B'desh asks India to hand over arrested murder suspects

DHAKA, Sunday (AFP) Bangladesh has asked India to extradite six Bangladeshi murder suspects arrested by Indian border guards for illegally crossing into India's West Bengal state, an official said Saturday. "We've sent a letter to India's Border Security Force (BSF) to hand over the six notorious criminals the BSF men arrested Thursday," Hasan Suhrawardy, director of operations for the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles, told AFP.

"They are each implicated in 25 to 30 cases, including the killing of an opposition lawmaker last year," Suhrawardy said.

He was referring to the shooting death of a popular Awami League member, Ahsanullah Master, at a political rally in May 2004.

Master was one of a number of opposition politicians slain over the past two years. Faced with opposition charges of inaction, Bangladesh's government has pledged full probes into a spate of attacks on opposition rallies.

Suhrawardy said all of the six men arrested by Indian border guards faced murder charges, some over the Master killing and others in connection with other killings.

On Thursday, police in India's West Bengal state said Indian border guards had arrested nine Bangladeshi nationals, with suspected links to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, for illegally crossing into the state.

Bangladesh is seeking the extradition of six of the detainees.