The government is likely to make a strong move to bring BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, his brother Arafat Rahman Koko and fugitive killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman back to the country to put them on trial.
The government, however, rejected a proposal of Canadian authority to amend the law to wipe out the provision of capital punishment to get back Nur Chowdhury, one of the convicted fugitive killers of Bangabandhu.
The decisions were taken in a meeting of the taskforce formed to bring back all Bangladeshi criminals and accused living abroad on parole or absconding.
Themeeting was held yesterday in the law minister’s office.
Taskforce Chief and Law Minister Anisul Haque chaired the meeting while members of the high-powered taskforce State Ministers for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam and Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal were present.
Other members of the taskforce the Attorney General, senior secretary of the home ministry, foreign secretary, law and justice secretary, inspector general of police and directors general of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence(DGFI), National Security Intelligence (NSI) and several senior high officials also attended the meeting.
The meeting sources said, the taskforce had taken the decision to strengthen its activities and start strong moves to bring back BNP Chief Khaleda Zia’s two sons Tarique and Koko home. They are now living abroad as fugitives after they went there on parole.
Expressing concern the minister and high officials attended the meeting saidthe decision was taken to prevent their anti-state activities and illogical statements on Bangabandhu and the history of the Liberation War of 1971.
According to a source, the taskforce has also taken decision of seeking assistance from the Interpol to this end.
But, Law Minister Anisul Haque denied talking anything about the decision in his short briefing after the meeting.
Terming the decisions confidential the minister said though the meeting had taken several important decisions these could not be disclosed publicly in the interest of the country. But, it would be visible to the people shortly. We will sit again soon to analyse the progress.
When asked if the government is going to bring back Tarique and Koko, he said:“We have talked about bringing back all the convicts and fugitives living abroad. Tariqueis a fugitive of two under-trial cases. Koko is also a convicted fugitive. They are trying to avoid the trial.”
“The law and order authority and court will take decision about them whether they would be brought back or not. The government has nothing to do in this regard. We will help the authority to bring the fugitive criminals back home,” he added.
Regarding the proposal of Canadian authority to amend the law to scrape the provision of capital punishment to get back Nur Chowdhury, Anisul said: “The government has no such plan to amend the law to get them back. We will try to do so through diplomatic effort.”
‘Diagnose Tarique for brain defect’
Anisul Haque also slammed Tarique Rahman for his comments on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“Such statements of Tarique Rahman should be ignored,” he saidadding: “His (Tarique) brain should be diagnosedto make sure if he has any defects.”
“Tarique’scomment was aimed at dentingthe image of Bangladesh. Now the questions have arisen if they want to turn Bangladesh into Pakistan by raising questions over some settled issuesrelated to the history of the Liberation War.”
Earlier, in a video message on the internet Tarique Rahman claimed that Bangabandhu was an illegal prime minister of Bangladesh.
Training his gun on Tarique in response to the claim the minister said: “He has hurt the Awami League and all other pro-liberation forces. They have hurt in the heart of Bangladesh. It cannot go unchallenged.”
The minister urged the media and all other pro-liberation forces to be aware of the “controversy that Tariqueis trying to stir up” from abroad.
Earlier, Tarique Rahman drew flak from Awami League leaders for claiming that Ziaur Rahman was the first president of Bangladesh.
