Bangladesh Ambassador to USA Mohammad Ziauddin has said they are convinced that the USA, as champion of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, shall return the killer of Bangabandhu to Bangladesh soon.
He said efforts continued to this day for the return of the killers of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and members of his family, who were tried and convicted in absentia. The killers are now hiding in foreign lands, including the USA.
Ziauddin expressed strong optimism at the National Mourning Day programme commemorating the 45th anniversary of martyrdom of Bangabandhu at Bangladesh embassy in Washington, DC.
One of the killers – former captain Abdul Majed – was executed recently.
Meanwhile, 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.
The fugitives are: Col (dismissed) Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col (relieved) Shariful Haque Dalim, Maj (retd) Noor Chowdhury, Maj (retd) Rashed Chowdhury and Risaldar Moslehuddin Khan. Of the fugitives, the government knew the whereabouts of Noor Chowdhury and Rashed Chowdhury; and it was not sure about the other fugitives-Rashid, Dalim and Moslehuddin.
Noor Chowdhury is now in Canada while Rashed Chowdhury in the USA.
Ambassador Ziauddin characterised August 15 as a cruelest massacre in human history, observing that the killers not only slew an iconic leader and statesman but also tried to destroy its secular democratic state structure and extinguish the spirit and noble objectives of independence.
He said the killers joined by the anti-liberation traitors led by General Zia who seized power illegally, destroyed democracy and introduced the politics of murder, coup and conspiracies.
He said the Zia regime tore the Constitution and adopted the infamous Indemnity Ordinance to block the trial of the killers and rewarded them with jobs in Bangladesh’s missions abroad.
