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DHAKA: Arabinda Rajkhowa, chairman and one of the founders of Indian separatist group United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), was arrested in Dhaka on Monday, reports BBC Bangla Service. Quoting Indian intelligence agencies, the BBC Kolkata correspondent reports that the Ulfa chief along with three to four other leaders was arrested in Gulshan in the capital.

Contacted, the high-ups of Bangladesh Police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Detective Branch (DB) and Special Branch (SB) denied such arrest.

A report of Indian state-run news agency PTI says: Home Secretary G K Pillai and his Bangladesh counterpart Abdus Sobhan Sikder, who is currently in India, pleaded ignorance about the detention of Rajkhowa.

"Because I am away from the country, I do not have such information till now," Sikder told reporters when asked about the development.

Pillai said, "We also have no official information of arrest of Arabinda Rajkhowa in Bangladesh or anywhere else".

Meanwhile, Indian English dailies the Hindustan Times and the Economic Times report that Ulfa chairman Rajkhowa, its publicity secretary Apurba Baruah and another separatist group National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) chairman Biswamohan Debbarma were also arrested in Bangladesh.

Quoting home ministry sources, the Indian media reports say efforts are on to get 53-year-old Ulfa Chairman Rajkhowa deported to India, writes our correspondent in Delhi.

According to reports published in the Hindustan Times and the Economic Times, the Ulfa and NLFT leaders were believed to have been arrested by the Special Branch of the Bangladesh police and are likely to be handed over to the Indian authorities along the Indo-Bangla border either in Tripura or in Assam soon.

The Ulfa chairman has reportedly been in favour of talks with the central government of India.

Talking to The Daily Star, Additional Inspector General of Police NBK Tripura, Rab Director General Hassan Mahmood Khandker, DMP Commissioner AKM Shahidul Hoque, Special Superintendent Meer Shahidul Islam of CID and SS Mahbubur Rahman of SB said they have no information regarding the arrest of any Ulfa or NLFT leaders.

Senior Ulfa leader Anup Chetia has been confined in Bangladesh jail since 1998.

According to PTI, with Rajkhowa's detention, Ulfa is now left with only two top leaders, commander-in-chief Paresh Barua and his deputy Raju Barua, who are yet to be arrested. It is believed that Paresh Barua now shuttles among China, Thailand and Malaysia.

Rajkhowa is among five people who founded the separatist group on April 7, 1979.

Accused in several cases, including that of waging war against India, Rajkhowa has an Interpol Red Corner notice against him. He has been out of India since 1992 and is said to have lived in places like Myanmar, Thailand, Bhutan apart from Bangladesh, added PTI.