Having failed to bring back remaining five fugitive convicted killers of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the government is exploring 'all avenues' to bring them back to execute the court verdicts.
The fugitives are identified as Col (dismissed) Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col (relieved) Shariful Haque Dalim, Maj (retd) Noor Chowdhury, Maj (retd) Rashed Chowdhury and Risaldar Moslehuddin Khan.
Noor Chowdhury is now in Canada while Rashed Chowdhury is in the USA. Dalim and Moslemuddin are believed to have been hiding in Spain and Germany respectively.
On August 15 in 1975, the Greatest Bangalee of all time, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members was brutally assassinated.
After taking the charge in 2009, Awami League-led government has taken massive steps to bring the fugitives back to the country which was a top-priority issue of the government.
On November 19 in 2009, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty of 12 convicted former army officials for the assassination of Bangabandhu and his family members.
Since then, six killers -- Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Abdul Majed -- were hanged to death. The other killer Aziz Pasha died in Zimbabwe in 2001.
"The government has repeatedly asked the US government to extradite Rashed cancelling his political asylum mentioning that Rashed has picked up the illegal path to get asylum there. The issue is now under the State Department's jurisdiction," a Foreign Ministry official said.
Noor is now in Canada without any legal papers. The country has so far refused to deport him, as its policies do not approve sending back a person to a country that has the provision for death sentence.
Canada, however, did not accept Noor's application for political asylum, official sources said. In 2011, the government appointed a Canadian law firm to help the government bring back Noor.
Last year, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen had expressed hope of bringing back Rashed Chowdhury, one of the absconding killers, from the US before March 2021, after the then US attorney general had reopened the fugitive's asylum case.
Bangladesh Police said a red alert was issued by Interpol to capture Bangabandhu's killers after the Awami League government came to power in 2009 and then the alert was renewed in 2019.
