Subir Bhaumik BBC correspondent in Calcutta

The Chief Minister of India's north-eastern state of Tripura says separatist groups active in his state are continuing to find shelter in neighbouring Bangladesh.

In an interview with the BBC, Chief Minister, Manik Sarkar said he had handed over a list of 51 rebel camps which he says are in Bangladesh's Sylhet and Chittagong Hill Tracts region.

He has asked the Indian Government to persuade Bangladesh to arrest these rebel leaders and send them to India to stand trial.

Mr Sarkar said Bangladesh was a friendly neighbour, with whom Tripura shares an ethnic and linguistic affinity.

'Information on camps'

But he said Bangladesh was being used as a base for operations by the separatist groups of Tripura and those active elsewhere in the north-east .

Mr Sarkar said: "Extremist organisations outlawed by the north-eastern state of Tripura have their bases in Bangladesh."

The ISI is active in Bangladesh from where they work against India

Chief Minister of Tripura Manik Sarkar

He went on to add that they have intelligence information about 51 camps.

But he said he was not treating them as hideouts because he believed extremists were moving around the country freely.

He was under the impression that the Indian Government agencies had knowledge of this information.

But in any case, he said he had handed over information about any extremists groups to the Indian authorities.

He went onto say he did not believe the Bangladeshi Government was sheltering them intentionally - but he had reason to believe that they were still operating in Bangladesh backed by Pakistan's military intelligence agency, the ISI.

Mr Manik Sakar alleged that the ISI is known to be active in Bangladesh from where they are working against India.

But he warned that Bangladesh must realise that Pakistan is working against India because they are not reconciled to the independence of Bangladesh, in whose creation India played a role.

If India can ask Pakistan to hand over 20 top wanted men to stand trial in India, they must ask Dhaka to hand over those north-east Indian rebel leaders who are operating from Bangladesh, he said.