Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today said government efforts were underway to extradite convicted criminals including Tarique Rahman and Noor Chowdhury to be exposed to justice.
“We want to bring back all convicted criminals and effort in this regard is underway,” he told reporters at foreign ministry here as asked for comments about the convicted criminals hiding abroad.
Momen said Dhaka by now launched a legal procedure to return Bangabandhu’s convicted killer fugitive sacked lieutenant colonel Noor Chowdhury from Canada while efforts were underway to bring back other convicts like Tarique as well.
He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also discussed the issue with her Canadian counterpart Justine Trudeau in their recent meeting.
The minister’s comments came hours after Law Minister Anisul Huq today held
a meeting with British High Commissioner Robert Chatterton Dickson saying
Dhaka wants to return Tarique, the acting BNP chief, to be exposed to justice
in line with a court verdict as he was staying in London.
“Tarique Rahman has been convicted by Bangladeshi courts. He is a
convicted accused. He should be put behind bars, but instead he is living in
Britain. So the government wants to bring him back,” he told newsmen
following the meeting at his Gulshan residence.
The minister said he sought repatriation of Tarique on two grounds – one
is, if the UK provides hi political asylum, other accused may also try to use
it as an example while the other ground is Tarique deserved imprisonment
since he was convicted by a Bangladeshi court.
Huq said United Kingdom government, however, does not want their relations
with Bangladesh to get jeopardized over the Tarique issue.
The foreign minister said Dhaka started legal process is going on in
Canada to bring back Noor Chowdhury here and implement the court verdicts as
per the law of Bangladesh.
Earlier, the Foreign Minister and Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud jointly inaugurated ‘Demonstration and Introduction of STP (Set-Top) Boxes for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)’ for all 78 Bangladesh Missions abroad at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
