The government has said its Mission in New York is ready to issue ‘travel permit’ if the family of former mayor of Dhaka City Corporation Sadeque Hossain Khoka applies for that.
“Our Mission (in New York) will take necessary steps if Sadeque Hossain Khoka’s family applies for travel permit,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam said in a message shared on his Facebook wall on Sunday.
He said travel permit is the only system internationally to return to own country from another country since Khoka and his wife do not have passports.
“I’ve conveyed the decision to our Consulate in New York,” said the State Minister.He said there are cases against him and his wife and there could have been arrest warrants against them that he is not sure of.
However, he came to know after talking to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan that the matter will be considered on humanitarian ground.
BNP on Sunday urged the government to take necessary steps so that ailing former mayor of undivided Dhaka City Corporation and freedom fighter Sadeque Hossain Khoka can return home from the USA.
“He (Khoka) told us and his friends to bury him in Bangladesh. His son also phoned me this (Sunday) morning that they want to fulfill this wish of his father,” said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Speaking at a doa mahfil, he further said, “We call upon the government to take steps so that he can return to the country.”
Khoka has been undergoing treatment in a very critical condition at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York since October 18.
The BNP leader went to the USA in 2014 for treatment but the validity of his passport expired in 2017. Fakhrul said Khoka has been fighting for life as his condition turned critical.
source: UNB
