Six killers still out of reach

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Clockwise from top-left: Lt Col Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col Shariful Haque Dalim, Lt Col SHMB Nur Chowdhury, Risaldar Moslehuddin Khan, Capt Abdul Mazed and Lt Col AM Rashed ChowdhuryKailash Sarkar

About nine months into the announcement of Supreme Court verdict in Bangabandhu murder case, the government could do little about the extradition of six fugitive convicts and tracing their whereabouts.

The Supreme Court on November 19 last year upheld the death sentence of 12 self-confessed killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Of them, five persons were hanged on January 28 this year.

The six convicts -- Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, SHMB Nur Chowdhury, AM Rashed Chowdhury, Abdul Mazed and Moslehuddin Khan -- are beyond reach of law of the land despite diplomatic manoeuvres.

Abdul Aziz Pasha, another condemned killer, died in Zimbabwe in June 2001.

The government so far has no specific information on the location of the fugitives.

Interpol officials said they conducted a drive called Operation Infra-Red 2010 from May 3 to July 15 and gathered information that Abdul Mazed was staying in either India or Pakistan.

Assistant Inspector General Abdul Malek, in charge of the international police organisation's Dhaka desk, told The Daily Star yesterday "The Interpol is trying its best to locate all the fugitive killers of Bangabandhu. But it's a continuous process and it needs time."

Sources said Rashed Chowdhury could be in Los Angeles, US while Nur Chowdhury in Canada.

Another source said Rashid and Dalim were staying in Libya or Pakistan.

There is no single clue to Moslehuddin's movements.

Law Minister Shafiq Ahmed, also the chief of an inter-ministerial committee formed to extradite the absconding six, yesterday told The Daily Star the process to bring them [the fugitives] back was now at the last stage.

"The government is now trying to solve the requirements like extradition treaty and other diplomatic steps."

However, he said the foreign affairs ministry knows about the latest move.

In a written statement, Saida Muna Tasneem, director general (external publicity wing) of the foreign affairs ministry, yesterday said, "The government is hopeful that it will be able to execute the convicts after bringing them back to the country."

The executed five were Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Mohiuddin Ahmed.