Dhaka, Aug 15 (UNB) – Road, Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Thursday said the government has intensified its diplomatic efforts to bring the condemned killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman back.
Quader, also the general secretary of Bangladesh Awami League, came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after paying tributes to the departed souls of Bangabandhu and his family members at Banani graveyard.
The Awami League leader urged people to build Bangladesh as a country of Bangabandhu’s dream imbued with non-communal spirit.
He vowed to build a corruption-free country under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina based on Bangabandhu’s ideology.
On August 15, 1975, Bangabandhu along with most of his family members was assassinated at road No 32 in Dhanmondi.
Eighteen members of his family, including Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, three sons — Captain Sheikh Kamal, Lieutenant Sheikh Jamal and 10-year-old Sheikh Russel, two daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal and Rosy Jamal, brother Sheikh Naser, peasant leader Abdur Rab Serniabat, youth leader Sheikh Fazlul Haq Moni and his wife Arzu Moni, Baby Serniabat, Sukanta Babu, Arif and Abdul Nayeem Khan Rintu were, among others, killed on that fateful night.
Five killers of Bangabandhu — Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Mohiuddin Ahmed — were hanged in January 2010. Another killer Aziz Pasha had met natural death in Zimbabwe in 2001.
On November 19, 2009, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty of 12 convicted former army officers for the assassination of Bangabandhu and his family members.
The six fugitive killers are former Lt Col Khandaker Abdur Rashid, SHBM Noor Chowdhury, Shariful Haque Dalim, Rashed Chowdhury, former captain Abdul Majed and Risaldar Moslehuddin.
Of them, the government knows the whereabouts of SHBM Noor Chowdhury, Rashed Chowdhury and Risaldar Moslehuddin while it is not yet sure about the other three fugitives — KhandakerAbdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim and Abdul Mazed.
Noor Chowdhury has been living in Canada while Rashed Chowdhury in the USA, official sources said.
