Efforts to bring back killers come cropper

ANIS ALAMGIR
Despite best efforts of the government to bring back six convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, it has not been able to produce any substantial result, to date. Moreover, even its efforts to sign extradition treaties with the USA, Canada, Libya and India to facilitate their extradition have not met with success.
To know the whereabouts of the fugitive killers, the government also sought the help of the Interpol, but the outcome is again frustrating.
Of the 12 convicted ex-army men, five had been hanged in the Dhaka central jail January 27 this year. Those sent to the gallows were Sayed Faruk Rahman, Sultan Shahrier Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed (Artillery), Bazlul Huda and AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed (lancer). Another killer Aziz Pasha died in Zimbabwe a few years back.
The fugitives are Khandakar Abdur Rashid, Shariful Huque Dalim, AM Rashed Chowdhury, SHMB Nur Chowdhury, Abdul Mazed and Moslem Uddin.
Out of them, the government knows the locations of only AM Rashed Chowdhury and SHMB Nur Chowdhury. Rashed Chowdhury lives in Los Angeles and is seeking asylum in Canada, while Nur Chowdhury lives in Toronto. He has been challenging a Canadian deportation order on the grounds that he will be put to death if returned to Bangladesh.
Canada, which abolished capital punishment in 1976, requires foreign nations to guarantee that any suspect extradited or deported from there would not be awarded death penalty for alleged crimes committed abroad.
In November last year, Bangladesh Law Minister Shafique Ahmed visited Canada and the USA to push for the deportation of those two killers. He met senior leaders of the Canadian and US administrations. He was hopeful to bring the killers back with their help.
Although there is no confirmation, but the government believes that Khandakar Abdur Rashid and Shariful Huque Dalim are living in Libya and Pakistan. On the other hand, Abdul Mazed and Moslem Uddin are said to be hiding in India.
However, the foreign ministry yesterday claimed, “The government is hopeful it will be able to bring back all fugitive killers of Banglabandhu from their present locations and carry out the full judgment by hanging them.”
In a statement, the foreign ministry also said that in this regard, a taskforce headed by the law minister had already been working and foreign ministry was helping the team.
According to sources, there was no progress on the extradition treaty with the USA, Canada, Libya and India. The foreign ministry sources also believed that if the countries concerned were willing to send the self-confessed killers, there was no need for extradition treaties. The USA has set the example by sending one killer in the case, who was later hanged following a verdict to this effect by the Bangladesh’s Supreme Court, along with other killers.
However, the government had able to bring back Bazlul Huda from Thailand through an extradition treaty during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s first regime.

published on 15 august 2010, The Independent