DHAKA, Jan 31, 2019 (BSS) – Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen today urged the USA government to send back Rashed Chowdhury, a fugitive killer of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who is now staying in the United States under political asylum.
“I urged him (US Ambassador) to send Rashed Chowdhury back,” he told newsmen after holding a meeting with the USA Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R. Miller at foreign ministry this afternoon.
Momen said he told the envoy that the USA is used to bring back their fugitive convicts from other countries. “Following the USA’s path, we want back the fugitive self-confessed killer (Rashed) who had been convicted by our court under a free judicial trail,” he said.
He referred that earlier the USA deported Mohiuddin Ahmed, another convicted killer of Bangabandhu, to Bangladesh
In reply, Momen said the Ambassador assured him that he will convey the Bangladesh request to Washington.
The minister said the US envoy appreciated the 11th parliamentary election. “We didn’t discuss that much over the election as the Ambassador visited my constituency to observe the polls on the election
day,” Momen said.
Referring to the Rohingya issue, the foreign minister urged the USA to request those countries having close ties with Myanmar so that they would take affective steps to resolve the crisis soon.
The Ambassador assured the minister that the USA would extend its all support to Bangladesh for resolving the Rohingya problem.
The foreign minister said they discussed various issues related to trade and commerce including purchase of military equipment.
About the purchase of military equipment, the minister said he informed the US envoy that Bangladesh is open to all regarding military equipment purchase and it prefers cost effective goods.
“I urged them to invest more in Bangladesh. In the energy sector we have set a target to generate 24,000 MW power by 2021,” he said.
The Bangladesh minister also urged the US to extend support to Bangladesh for realizing the country’s various economic roadmap.
“We talked about good governance, democracy and how we could build a strong US-Bangladesh relationship, including economic partnership, military sale and Indo Pacific strategy,” US Ambassador told reporters after the meeting.
The US Ambassador said he is happy to meet a person like Dr Momen as Bangladesh foreign minister who received several degrees from the USA and had experience of teaching at the USA universities.