Deportation of Rashed Chy can boost BD-US anti-terrorist tie

It is also believed that Rashed is a terrorist according to the US laws and he is a threat to the US national interest. “It is a long-standing demand of Bangladesh and it will definitely have a positive impact on our relationship,” former Bangladesh ambassador to US Humayun Kabir told the Dhaka Tribune. Former law minister Shafiq Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune that a US immigration judge determined Bangabandhu killer AKM Mohiuddin a ‘terrorist’ and a ‘danger to the national security of the United States due to his participation in 1975 coup, in which the first president of Bangladesh along with his family members were brutally killed. “Rashed Chowdhury and Mohiuddin committed the same crime of actively taking part in the coup and that’s why, the verdict applicable to Mohiuddin is also applicable to Rashed Chowdhury,” he added. The United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, on September 1, 2005, in a verdict on a petition filed by Mohiuddin said: “The record overwhelmingly establishes reasonable grounds to believe that Mohiuddin participated in the assassination of Bangladesh’s first president and the merciless slaughter of his family and other innocent people.” In another para, the verdict said: “The Board and immigration judge have found Mohiuddin’s actions are fully embraced within the definitions of terrorist activities in the INA [Immigration and Nationality Act].” It also said: “The immigration judge determined that Mohiuddin’s participation in the coup constituted reasonable grounds to believe that he poses a danger to the national security of the United States.” Shafiq said everybody knows what Mohiuddin and others did on August 15, 1975 and Rashed should not get separate treatment in any country. Rashed has reportedly got political asylum in the US and has been living in Sacramento of California. The former law minister said Rashed must have lied in his asylum application, otherwise no civilized country would have given him political asylum. “In his written application for asylum, filed prior to the initiation of removal proceedings, Mohiuddin admitted that his task was to block the roads leading to Sheikh Mujib’s house from the north and the west to stop any outside interference,” the verdict said. The verdict also said: “At his asylum interview, he stated that the majors anticipated possible interference from the president’s special security forces (the Rakkhi Bahini) that were based one and a half miles from presidential palace.” In his application, Mohiuddin admitted his participation in the coup and was refused asylum, Shafiq said. “Rashed Chwodhury would have received the same treatment had he admitted in his asylum application his participation in the coup,” he said. “I am sure Rashed Chwodhury lied in his application and it can be proved if there is a review,” he added. A court can give any decision, but there is a provision for review and it can be done for Rashed’s case to make things straight, Shafiq said. Mohiuddin was deported to Bangladesh from the US on June 27, 2007. Rashed joined the government service in 1969 and got his first diplomatic assignment in 1976 as second secretary in Jeddah. He also worked in Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and Brasilia as first secretary and counselor. He was dismissed from the service in July 1996. According to his personal file at the foreign ministry, he was asked to report to Dhaka in July 1996, but he did not comply with order. Iftikharul Karim, the then charge’d affairs of Brasilia, where Rashed was last posted, sent a letter to the foreign ministry saying Rashed flew to San Francisco from Sau Paulo.