Deadline to trace Bangabandhu killers

The government gives the foreign ministry a week's time to find the whereabouts of A H M B Noor Chowdhury and M Rashed Chowdhury

Dhaka, Dec 22 (bdnews24.com) — The government has given the foreign ministry a week's time to find the whereabouts of A H M B Noor Chowdhury and M Rashed Chowdhury, convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

"The foreign ministry has been given the time to trace out their last known whereabouts," law minister Shafique Ahmed told bdnews24.com on Thursday after a meeting of the taskforce formed to bring back the absconding convicts in the Bangabandhu murder case.

Noor is currently residing in Canada, while Rashed is now in the US.

On Oct 5, foreign minister Dipu Moni had written to the US and Canadian authorities to hand over the two Bangabandhu killers to Bangladesh.

But following a meeting with Dipu on Dec 4, Canadian ambassador to Bangladesh Heather Cruden said: "Canada will not extradite Noor Chowdhury as our government has a clear policy that we can't extradite people to the country where there is death sentence."

However, the Bangladesh government is still trying to work out the Noor's extradition process with the Canadian authorities.

Shafique on Thursday said a law firm has already been hired for the purpose.

Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family were brutally killed on Aug 15, 1975 by some disgruntled junior army officials.

Of the 12 convicts condemned to death in the murder case, five were hanged in 2010, one died and six are absconding.

The convicts hanged were Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahariar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, Mohiuddin Ahmed and AKM Mohiuddin. Another, Abdul Aziz Pasha, died in Zimbabwe.

Apart from Noor and Rashed, Col Khandkar Abdur Rashid (retd), Lt Col Shariful Haque Dalim (retd), Abdul Mazed and Moslehuddin are still absconding.

Interpol has issued warrant to arrest them.

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