DHAKA, March 1, 2021 (BSS) – Foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today said he told his US counterpart Antony Blinken that it is ‘high time’ to deport Bangabandhu’s convicted fugitive killer Rashed Chowdhury to Bangladesh for establishing rule of law here.
“I told him (Blinken), it is high time (to depart Rashed Chowdhury),” he told reporters at his office today while discussing about outcome of his US visit.
The foreign minister returned home today after visiting Washington DC on an official trip to reach out the new Biden administration to further enhance the level of cooperation between Bangladesh and the United States.
Referring to his meeting with Secretary of State Blinken, Dr Momen said he raised the issue of deporting Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Muriqui Rahman’s convicted fugitive killer Rashed Chowdhury strongly.
He told the secretary of state that Bangladesh wants to try this self-confessed murderer for the sake of ensuring rule of law in the county what the US always advises to do so.
The foreign minister said during the meeting he states that as the US is vocal about good governance and rule of law, the new administration should send the convicted killer, who is now residing in the US, in light of shared spirit of establishing justice.
Dr Momen also suggested the US government that it can send back Rashed in the same way they had deported another Bangabandhu’s convicted killer Mohiuddin from US to Bangladesh earlier.
Earlier, while President Biden took the oval office of White House, the Bangladesh foreign minister hoped that the US’s new administration would take the issue of deporting Rashed Chowdhury ‘seriously’ as it could be a ‘game changer’ in the Bangladesh-US partnership.
Bangladesh government had traced out that two of Bangabandhu’s remaining five convicted furtive killers, Rashed Chowdhury and Noor Chowdhury, are now residing in the USA and Canada respectively.
After knowing the whereabouts of the killers, the Foreign Ministry and the Law Ministry have been deeply engaged with the US and the Canadian authorities to bring back these two absconding murderers.
Meanwhile, on April last year, sacked military captain Abdul Majed, one of the Bangabandhu’s fugitive killers, was arrested and hanged at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.
Majed was on the run for nearly two and a half decades to evade justice and after his arrest, he said he had been hiding in India’s West Bengal for the past 23 years and returned to Bangladesh on March this year.
Twelve sacked military officers were sentenced to death for the August 15, 1975 killing of Bangabandhu along with most of his family members and five of them were executed while one died a natural death.
The 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 and Mohiuddin Ahmed of artillery faced the trial in the judge court while Huda was extradited from Thailand and another Mohiuddin known as lancer Mohiuddin was sent back from the United States after the then district judge Golam Rasul delivered the judgment.