The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Interpol secretary-general Donald K Noble yesterday announced that the Paris-based international policing organization would work hard to have a Bangladeshi police officer as a candidate or attached with the Interpol.

"We decided-the Inspector General and I decided in the first time of the history that Interpol will work hard to try and get a Bangladeshi police officer as a candidate of Interpol… And I myself committed to raise money for that purpose," he told a crowded media conference at Hotel Sonargaon at the end of his tour of Bangladesh, first by an Interpol chief executive.

Noble, who inaugurated a Criminal Intelligence Analysis Unit at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the capital yesterday evening, said two analysts from the Interpol would come Dhaka for a two-week session to impart advanced training to Bangladesh Police for analytical work.

"We hope Bangladesh Police and Interpol will work closely together in future," he said.

Bangladesh joined Interpol in 1976 and, Noble said, since then Dhaka has been attending important conferences and meeting sessions and making contributions to the international police.

Bangladesh also offered assistance when Interpol required. He said Dhaka sent a bomb-disposal unit during the last cricket World Cup in the Caribbean to ensure security of dignitaries.

In reply to a question how Interpol can help in repatriation of Bangladeshi criminals hiding in a neighboring country in the absence of extradition treaty, Noble said Interpol believes in police-to-police cooperation and also believes in sovereignty of each of its 186 member-states.

"What we try to do to is set up border-protection system to prevent movement of criminals from one country to another. Criminals are vulnerable at border and they can be caught by identifying their passport and travel documents and sent back to their countries," he told a correspondent.

Asked if the Interpol found any Islamic militant outfits of Bangladesh having link with Al-Qaeda or international terrorist network, Noble said they don't use the term 'Islamic terrorist', they use only ' terrorist', and they have developed database of criminals.

He said Interpol helps its member-country to detect any criminal it seeks for by matching his fingerprint, DNA, passport address or telephone number.

Now, he said, some 12,000 suspected terrorists are on Interpol database. But, he could not say if there is any Bangladeshi on the database.

Additional IGP N.B.K. Tripura told the press that, so far, 16,000 international criminals, who were the subjects of Interpol red notices or diffusions, had been arrested in last seven years.