Bangladesh pledges not to tolerate anti-India's activities on its soil

Bangladesh Monday assured India that it would not tolerate any kind of anti-India's activities on its soil, prompting a reciprocal response from New Delhi. Stating this, Bangladeshi Home Secretary Monzur Hosssain also said that Dhaka was keen to improve security cooperation with New Delhi by exploring new areas for mutual benefit of the two neighboring countries. "Anti-India forces are not active in Bangladesh. We don't allow them. We don't allow them to do anything like that. But some time some things do happen, that is a different issue. But they will not be tolerated. We have zero tolerance for them," he said at a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart R.K. Singh. Singh also reaffirmed that India would not allow its territory to be used for any activity inimical to Bangladesh's interests. "We consider Bangladesh to be one of our closest friends. In the past one-and-a-half years, our cooperation has been very close, very close indeed. We are very happy -- both the countries are very happy with the cooperation which is in place. We look forward to this cooperation and (want it) to keep going on," he said. In fact, the assurances came as both sides wound up their three- day Home Secretary level talks in the national capital, during which they also decided to operationalize Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty for transfer of sentenced prisoners. Both sides also decided to operationalize the agreement on Combating Organized Crime and Illegal Drug Trafficking signed during the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January last year. The home secretaries also agreed to take further steps to prevent smuggling of fake Indian currency notes into India from Bangladesh.