Dhaka: Ulfa leader Anup Chetia and his two associates were handed over to representatives of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka from Kashimpur jail early on Wednesday.

‘We handed Anup Chetia along with his two associates over to a delegation of Indian High Commission in accordance with his wish,’ inspector general (prisons) Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin said while briefing reporters at his office in the old town of Dhaka.

He said the trio were handed over in accordance with the existing procedures of releasing prisoners, the IG (prisons) added.

Anup Chetia, who was general secretary of Ulfa, an insurgent group banned in India, had been arrested from Mohammadpur area of Dhaka on 21 December 1997 for trespassing into Bangladesh. He was returned to India on Wednesday morning through a border point after being freed from the Kashimpur jail on completion of his jail term.

Chetia is wanted in several cases of terrorism in India, including the killing of a superintendent of police. Chetia, whose real name is Golap Baruah, is the brain behind the birth of Ulfa in 1979 and is the cousin of Paresh Baruah, another Indian insurgency leader.