THE STATESMAN

Days after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, New Delhi yesterday sought Dhaka’s cooperation in expediting the repatriation of alleged undocumented Bangladeshis from India.

The request follows Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman’s remark that Dhaka would take action if pushback incidents occur under the changed political circumstances in West Bengal following the BJP’s victory in the state.

Responding to Khalilur’s remarks, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the comments must be viewed in a certain context.

“We have seen comments of this nature being made in the last several days. These comments must be seen in the context of the core issue of the repatriation of illegal Bangladeshis from India. This obviously requires cooperation from Bangladesh. Over 2,860 cases of nationality verification are pending The

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