Canada to look into extradition of Mujib’s killer Noor Chowdhury

A Canadian minister has assured Bangladesh’s foreign secretary to look into the issue of extraditing Noor Chowdhury with “due seriousness”.

Chowdhury is convicted for the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family in 1975.

Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque raised the issue with Canada's Senior Associate Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Peter Boehm in an official meeting in Ottawa on Tuesday.

Boehm said the Canadian government would “look into this with due seriousness”, the foreign ministry said.

The foreign secretary held a series of meetings at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development of Canada, and discussed all aspects of bilateral relations between the two countries during his official visit to Ottawa on Tuesday.

Bangladesh has requested Canada several times to extradite Noor Chowdhury, but Ottawa turned down the request citing legal limitation.

The court awarded him death penalty for the massacre of the family of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Aug 15, 1975.

Canadian legal system does not allow deportation of any foreign citizen who might face death penalty in their home country.

Foreign Secretary also discussed the whole gamut of the existing bilateral relations, including the transformation in the ready-made garment sector, and post 2015 development agenda during the meeting.

He also discussed counter-radicalization efforts in view of growing extremism across the world.

He also stressed the need for enhancing people to people contacts during the meeting.

He requested the Canadian government to re-open the visa facilities for Bangladesh citizens in Dhaka.

On the other hand, Canada sought Bangladesh's collaboration in the areas of empowerment of women and gender equity as well as post-2015 development agenda in the context of Commonwealth and the United Nations respectively.

The foreign secretary also met the Canadian Deputy Minister for Trade Christian Hogan and discussed the current status of bilateral trade and investment as well as its future expansion.

At present, the two-way trade between the two countries stands at $1.9 billion . Bangladesh exports to Canada goods worth more than one billion dollars.

Haque called upon Canadian government to increase imports from Bangladesh , specially ships, light engineering goods, ceramics, pharmaceuticals, electronics and IT.

He also highlighted the congenial atmosphere of investment that is prevailing in Bangladesh, and stressed the importance of having a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) with Canada.

He also exchanged views with Assistant Deputy Minister Susan Gregson on Bangladesh's development partnership with Canada.

She revealed that Bangladesh remains “a country of focus” for Canada's development assistance, in particular, in the fields of maternal and child health, education, sustainable economic growth projects.

High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Canada Kamrul Ahsan and foreign ministry’s Director General (America) Mahfuzur Rahman were present during those meetings.