The government has taken another initiative to bring back Noor Chowdhury, self-confessed and convicted killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to Bangladesh from Canada.
“I will raise the issue at a formal meeting with top officials of the Canadian government next week,” Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune.
Bangladesh earlier asked the Canadian government to send back Noor Chowdhury but it was turned down by Ottawa, where death penalty is banned. According to the Canadian legal system, Ottawa cannot deport any foreign citizen who might face death penalty in his or her home country.
The secretary said both the countries never had the opportunity to formally discuss bilateral issues at the political level. “We want to get engage more with the North American country,” he said.
The first formal foreign office consultation with Canada will be held in Ottawa on February 16.
Shahidul left Dhaka yesterday and will visit New York, Ottawa and Washington to attend three events. He will attend a migration conference at the United Nations on February 12-13.
He will travel to Washington from Ottawa to attend “Counter Violent Extremism Summit” to be held in White House and State Department on February 18 and 19.
Extremism Summit
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali will take part in the two-day summit as he was invited by Secretary of State John Kerry. The inaugural programme would be held at the White House and concluding session at the State Department, the secretary said.
This is a part of the global move to contain radicalisation at the community level while an initiative titled “Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF)” has already been launched to contain the malice.
“Bangladesh is a board member of the GCERF and it wants to share its experience with other countries,” Shahidul said. Bangladesh along with four other countries will have fund from the GCERF by this year to launch pilot projects in the country.
Migration conference
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will have an interaction with delegation from Bangladesh, Sweden and Turkey at the conference on migration at the UN Headquarters. These countries are involved with the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), Shahidul said.
Bangladesh will host the GFMD conference next year. Sweden is its current chair of the conference and Turkey was its previous chair.
The UN chief is directly involved with the formation of the GFMD and he wants to share his thoughts and vision about the forum with the three countries, the secretary added.