Efforts are underway to extradite fugitive killers of Bangabandhu: Anisul

Law Minister Anisul Huq said today efforts are still underway to extradite the remaining five fugitive killers of Bangabandhu as police said they have definite information about two of their whereabouts and clues about the other three.

"We can tell this many efforts will not stop until the fugitive killers are extradited," he said, coinciding with the 47th martyrdom anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

He added, "We are trying our best to bring back the (convicted) killers to execute the verdict."

Huq said the indifference of previous governments towards the killers exposed the ruling Awami League (AL) to some legal difficulties in returning them but, "Now we are solving the problems one after another and therefore, despite our efforts, we could not ensure their quick return."

Awami League first returned to power in 1996 general elections after 21 years of political wilderness after the 1975 carnage when the subsequent governments enacted laws to protect the killers from justice, rewarded them with prestigious diplomatic postings abroad or allowed them to float and run political parties at home.

A delayed trial to the August 15, 1975 carnage that also saw the deaths of most members of Bangabandhu family alongside some others, began after 1996 as the Awami League government scrapped the infamous indemnity act and after a protracted judicial process out of 12 convicts, six were exposed to gallows so far.

Three of the executed convicts, however, were brought back home while they were hiding abroad to evade the justice – one from Thailand, one from the United States and one from India – while they were tried in absentia.

According to the Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) chief Additional Deputy Inspector General Mohiul Islam at Bangladesh Police Headquarters, the global police agency issued red alert against the fugitives which still prevailed.

"Sacked Lieutenant Colonel Nur Chowdhury has been traced in Canada and sacked Lieutenant Colonel Rashed Chowdhury in the USA," Islam said while records suggest Nur Chowdhury was one of the direct assassins who shot dead Bangabandhu.

The official said sacked Lieutenant Colonel Shariful Huq Dalim was presumed to be staying abroad changing his locations different countries like China, the UK, Thailand, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Libya while Sacked Lieutenant Colonel Khandakar Abdur Rashid to be in Libya, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Poland, Thailand and Italy.

Risaldar Moslehuddin, he said, was believed to be on the run in neighbouring India.

The law minister, on the other hand, said the two fugitive killers traced in Canada and the USA, talks were underway to the concerned authorities of these two countries about their extradition.

"We are continuing the discussions and the government is taking quick steps where it is possible... you witnessed that the (convicted captain) Majed was executed recent period after his return home," Huq said.

The law minister said apart from the issue of extraditions, a framework was prepar5ed by now to unmask the behind the scene masterminds of the August 15 carnage.

"I hope the commission could start its work by the end of this year," he added.