Will take back B'deshis staying in India illegally if evidence provided: Dhaka

Kolkata: An advisor to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said the country will take back any citizen of the neighbouring nation staying in India illegally, if evidence is provided.

The issue of the amended Citizenship Act is an internal matter of India, Advisor to Hasina on international affairs, Gauhar Rizvi, said.

"We will take back any Bangladeshi citizen staying in India illegally. But India has to prove that. This is a standard procedure. I think there is no need to build up an issue on this," Rizvi told reporters.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen had on Sunday said his country has requested India to provide a list of any Bangladesh nationals living illegally in the country and it will allow them to

return.

Rizvi said Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists co-exist peacefully in Bangladesh.

On the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the advisor to Bangladesh Prime Minister said, "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured us that there is no reason for Bangladesh to worry."

The advisor to Hasina on international affairs, added Bangladesh has set an example for being a pluralistic, secular and democratic society.

"We have never deviated from that commitment", the senior official said.

Bangladesh would not have been liberated in 1971 without India's assistance, said Rizvi who is in the city on the occasion of the Vijay Diwas.

The Vijay Diwas marks the Indian military's victory over Pakistan in the 1971 Indo-Pak war and the creation of Bangladesh. Rizvi said, "Our friendship is continuing for the past 50 years. India is always with us, will be in future also."

There are very few examples in the world where people of one nation had shed blood for another country's liberation, he said.