Bangladesh seeks extradition of Mujib killers

DHAKA - The Bangladesh government has asked countries, including India, where it suspects the killers of its founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are hiding to track down and arrest the absconding men.

Dhaka suspects that at least two of them, former captain Abdul Majed and Risaldar Moslehuddin, are hiding in India and has written to New Delhi to seek their custody.

“We have sought Indian assistance for tracking down and arrest the remaining killers… We asked India to return them if they really are staying there,” Home Minister Sahara Khatun said.

Twelve Bangladesh Army officers were convicted for leading a putsch in which Rahman and most of his family members were killed Aug 15, 1975. Five of the 12 convicts were hanged earlier this year. One of them has died while six are absconding.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is Rahman’s daughter. Bangladesh Sunday observed National Day of Mourning, marking the 35th anniversary of the assassinations.

“Steps have been taken to bring back the remaining convicts,” Hasina said in a statement Sunday.

Ruling Awami League general secretary and minister Syed Ashraful Islam told newspersons that the absconding killers “living particularly in western countries” could be extradited through court clearance from those countries.

A senior police official at the police headquarters told BSS, the official news agency last week, that ex-lieutenant colonel Khandaker Abdur Rashid was hiding in Libya and often travelled to Pakistan while S.H.B.M. Noor Chowdhury was in Canada but sometimes travelled to Britain.

Ex-lieutenant colonel Shariful Haque Dalim is staying in Kenya and Rashed Chowdhury is in the US.