Bangla terrorists ask Indian docs to leave

NEW DELHI: Indian medicos in Dhaka’s Apollo Hospital have been asked to leave the country by Bangladesh terrorist outfits. Three dreaded outfits active in Bangladesh have given an ultimatum to Indian doctors to leave by January 31.

The threat came in an e-mail sent on the night of January 8, in the name of Abu Sayeed M M Rahman, who claims to be the joint secretary of the “Joint Action Committee” of three ultra-Islamic terrorist groups. The medicos were told that they would in any case have to leave Bangladesh by month-end, but they should also “be ready to pay BDT 20 lac at any moment”. Failure to do this would invite dire consequences, the e-mail warned.

The Apollo Hospital came up just about eight months ago in Dhaka which has around 200 Indian doctors and nurses. Sources in Bangladesh, speaking to DNA, sought to underplay the seriousness of the threat, saying the hospital was closely connected to the country’s ruling establishment and PM Begum Khaleda Zia had inaugurated it. “The threat could be the handiwork of professional rivals,” they said.

The mail from terrorists accuses Indians of being there to “exploit” Bangladeshis and “extract money in the name of better health services”, which could be provided “by our own expert doctors through our own hospitals”.

The three terrorists outfits named in the mail (see box), are among the most dreaded Islamic organisations active in that country.