Bangladesh slams US, Canada for not sending back killers of founding leader

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Dhaka on Thursday criticized the US and Canada for not sending back two self-proclaimed killers of Bangladesh’s founding leader.

The killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman cannot be returned due to the lack of political will of the Western countries, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sehli Sabreen said at the weekly media briefing.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working on this matter (to bring back the killers),” she added.

Bangabandhu, along with most of his family members, was assassinated on Aug. 15, 1975, by a group of army personnel.

Five of the 12 convicts in the assassination were executed on Jan. 27, 2010, a year after the Awami League-led alliance retook power.

Among the alive convicts, two are in the US and Canada while the whereabouts of others are still unknown. However, there is an Interpol warrant for their arrest.

Nur Chowdhury was found guilty of Bangabandhu's assassination by a Bangladesh court. Chowdhury has been living in Canada for nearly three decades, and current Canadian law restricts sending back convicts, primarily to countries where death sentences are carried out.

Fugitive MA Rashed Chowdhury, who, like Nur Chowdhury, was sentenced to death by the country's court, has been living in the US since 1996 with his family.