The government said its embassy in New York is ready to issue a “travel permit” if the family of former Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka applies for it.
“Our Mission (in New York) will take necessary steps if Sadeque Hossain Khoka’s family applies for a travel permit,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam said in a post shared on Facebook on Sunday.
He said a travel permit is the only system that is recognized internationally in order to return to one’s own country from another, since Khoka and his wife do not have their passports, reports UNB.
“I’ve conveyed the decision to our consulate in New York,” said the state minister.
He said that there are cases against him and his wife, and there could be 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 grounds.
BNP, on Sunday, urged the government to take necessary steps so that the 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 prayer session, he further said: “We call upon the government to take steps so that he can return to the country.”
Khoka has been undergoing treatment 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 is fighting for his life as his condition has become critical.