New Bangladesh home advisor has had several run-ins with India

New Delhi: Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, who has been appointed as the new home affairs adviser to the interim government in Bangladesh, replacing Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain, faced friction with India over several issues during the BNP rule between 2001-06 and his role in the current dispensation will be watched carefully, said people familiar with the matter.

Chowdhury, former DG of Border Guard Bangladesh, will also be in charge of the agriculture ministry. During the BNP rule, when Chowdhury was DG Bangladesh Rifles (currently known as Border Guard Bangladesh), he once accused India of harbouring 90 terrorist camps of anti-Bangladesh separatists. He also blamed India for the grenade attacks which took place in Bangladesh on August 17, 2005, the people said. Bangladesh's foreign ministry had then claimed that the Indian media presented a distorted version of Chowdhury's statement and that he actually said that some Indian criminals might have been involved in the countrywide bomb blasts .

Within a day of his appointment, Chowdhury reopened a file of 2009 Bangladesh Rifles mutiny. He might try to blame ousted PM Sheikh Hasina, her family members and India for playing a "role" in the mutiny that led to the killings of several army officers, said the people cited earlier.