FM seeks cooperation from diplomats in bringing back Bangabandhu’s killers

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Sunday sought cooperation from foreign diplomats in bringing back fugitive killers of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

He was addressing a virtual discussion with foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka and New Delhi marking the National Mourning Day to commemorate the 45th anniversary of martyrdom of Father of the Nation, reports UNB.

Law Minister Anisul Huq and State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam also spoke at the discussion while Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen delivered the welcome remarks.

Around 83 diplomats stationed in Dhaka and New Delhi joined the discussion hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Foreign Minister said five killers of Bangabandhu remain fugitive and the government came to know the whereabouts of two of them.

“We don’t know the locations of three killers,” he said requesting friendly countries to help Dhaka identify their locations and return all the fugitives to Bangladesh.

The fugitives are: Col (dismissed) Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col (relieved) Shariful Haque Dalim, Maj (retd) Noor Chowdhury, Maj (retd) Rashed Chowdhury and Risaldar Moslehuddin Khan.  Noor Chowdhury is now in Canada while Rashed Chowdhury in the USA.

The Foreign Minister said the government wants to implement the court verdict to ensure justice and the rule of law in the country.

The trial of Bangabandhu murder case was impeded by promulgating an Indemnity Ordinance and the BNP-Jamaat Alliance government stopped the trial.

One of the killers — former captain Abdul Majed — was executed recently.

Meanwhile, five killers of Bangabandhu – Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Mohiuddin Ahmed – were hanged in January 2010. Another killer, Aziz Pasha, had met the natural death in Zimbabwe in 2001.

At the beginning of the discussion, a one-minute silence was observed paying tributes to Bangabandhu and his family members who were killed.

On August 15 in 1975, the Greatest Bangalee of all time, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members was brutally assassinated.

Eighteen members of the Father of the Nation’s family, including Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, three sons – Captain Sheikh Kamal, Lieutenant Sheikh Jamal and 10-year-old Sheikh Russel, two daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal and Rosy Jamal, brother Sheikh Abu Naser, peasant leader Abdur Rab Serniabat, youth leader Sheikh Fazlul Haq Moni and his pregnant wife Arzu Moni, Baby Serniabat, Sukanta Babu, Arif and Abdul Nayeem Khan Rintu were, among others, killed by the heinous killers on that fateful night.

Then Director General of DGFI Brigadier General Jamil Uddin Ahmed, who was also Bangabandhu’s Military Secretary, was also murdered.

Several members of a family died in the capital’s Mohammadpur area by artillery shells fired by the killers on the same day.