DHAKA, Aug 31, 2020 (BSS) – Foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today expressed his hope of bringing back Rashed Chowdhury, one of the fugitive convicted killers of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman currently hiding in the USA with false information, to the country within the ‘Mujib Year’.
“I hope, we will be able to bring back at least Rashed Chowdhury (Bangabandhu’s convicted killer) from the USA within the ‘Mujib Year’ (marking the birth centenary of founding father of Bangladesh),” he said.
The foreign minister was speaking at a discussion on Bangabandhu killing, organized by Janatar Prottasha with its chairman M A Karim in the chair at Jatiya Press Club in the capital.
Momen said Rashed fled the country in 1996 after the Awami League government came into the state power and took asylum in the USA with false information.
“We have provided all documents regarding Rashed Chowdhury to the US authority and said them (US government) that he (Rashed) is a convicted killer of Bangabandhu,” he said.
The foreign minister said he is hopeful to bring back Rashed Chowdhury, as, the USA had earlier sent back another Bangabandhu’s fugitive killer Mohiuddin Ahmed known as Lancer Mohiuddin to Bangladesh.
“We have already detected another Bangabandhu’s fugitive killer Noor Chowdhury, living in Canada … but we are yet to know whereabouts of three others,” he said.
The three untraced fugitive killers are – Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, and Moslehuddin Khan.
Momen said Dhaka has sought cooperation from all the countries across the world to detect the rest three fugitive convicted killers and send them here to help Bangladesh in establishing the rule of law.
He said three ministries- foreign, law and home affairs – have been working in this regard. “We are putting in all sort of efforts to bring them back,” he added.
Momen said the foreign ministry gave special instructions to all Bangladesh missions abroad to hunt for the killers.
He urged Bangladeshi expatriates to be vigilant along with Bangladesh missions abroad to identify fugitive killers of Bangabandhu enabling the government to bring them back as well.
“I call upon our expatriate brothers as well as countrymen to give us information about them (fugitive killers) so that we can wipe off our stigma,” he said.
Momen said the Bangabandhu killers were not brought behind the bar for long 21 years from 1975 to 1996 following the promulgation of an Indemnity Ordinance.
Assuming state power, he said, the Awami League government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had arranged the trial of Bangabandhu’s self-declared killers in a very transparent manner.
“We want to implement the court verdicts of the Bangabandhu murder trial to ensure justice, rule of law and good governance in the country,” Momen said adding that no killer could be exempted from the court verdict wherever they hide in this world.
Twelve ex-military officers were sentenced to death for the August 15, 1975 killing of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members.
Of them, five sacked army personnel – Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Mohiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul Huda – were hanged at Dhaka Central Jail on January 28, 2010, while another convict, sacked colonel Rashed Pasha, died a natural death in Zimbabwe while he was on the run.
Farooq Rahman, Shahriar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed of artillery faced the trials in the judge court while Huda was extradited from Thailand and Mohiuddin was sent back from the United States after the then district judge Golam Rasul delivered the judgment.
On April 12 last, sacked military captain Abdul Majed, one of the Bangabandhu’s fugitive killers hiding in India, was arrested here and hanged at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.