Mithu, who won the 110m hurdles gold in the Colombo SA Games last year, was in Italy as part of his training at the Malaysia High Performance Sports Centre in a bid to get exposure and build competitive spirit.

A nine-member team including two Bangladeshi hurdlers -- Mithu and Sumita Rani -- from the Malaysian sport centre went to Italy and were due to travel to France.

But Mithu and three athletes -- one each from Yemen, Sri Lanka and Pakistan -- did not make the tour to France, informed BOA chief operative officer (COO) Col (retd) Waliullah last night.

"Mithu has yet to contact any of the team from Malaysia. So it is certain that he is missing. We have talked with Sumita, who came back to Italy after a short trip to France, and she told us that Mithu was not with the team in France," told Wali.

"We have to wait and see. Unless he returns, we cannot take any action. If he is caught, he will certainly be punished," he added.

Mithu, a non-commissioned officer of the Bangladesh Air Force who hails from Noakhali, was sent to train in Malaysia for one and a half year and according to the COO of BOA, he earned about Tk 65,000 per month. After the Europe tour, the team were expected to return to Malaysia on July 5.

"It is a disgrace. We wanted him to become a top athlete of Asia but he has downed us heavily."

Bangladesh has a long history of athletes defecting in abroad, especially in affluent countries, during competitions. The long list includes star athletes like Saidur Rahman Dawn, Bimal Chandra Tarafder and champion swimmer Karar Mizanur Rahman.

In 2002, swimmer Karar Samedul Islam showed some good judgment by returning after he had fled with four athletes from the Manchester Commonwealth Games Village.

RASHID OUTLAWED
The BOA also ousted Abdur Rashid from the organisation yesterday for using false identity to become its councillor.

"Rashid used false documents of the Cox's Bazar District Sports Association and forged signatures to become a councillor of the Bangladesh Amateur Athletics Federation and got elected as its joint-secretary. He was also nominated as BOA's councillor from the athletics federation but the truth has come out of an investigation run by us," told Wali.

"He was issued a show-cause and his reply to us was not satisfactory. We got the final approval on Sunday and he has been banned from all sporting activities of athletics federation and the BOA," he added.