Send him back
Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday requested the UK government to send back BNP Senior Vice-chairman Tarique Rahman to Bangladesh immediately so that the government can implement his jail sentence.
“You have given shelter to two convicts in your country,” he said, referring to Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Tarique Rahman.
Chowdhury Mueen Uddin was convicted of committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, said the minister, urging the UK government to extradite him as well.
Tarique Rahman has been awarded jail sentence as per due legal process, he said, adding that it is the government's duty to implement the verdict.
The minister was addressing a human chain arranged by Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote (BSJ) at Banani playground in the capital.
BSJ, a pro-Awami League cultural organisation, arranged the human chain protesting “BNP-Jamaat's attack on Bangladesh High Commission in London and on the portrait of the father of the nation” last month.
Law Minister Anisul said some mischief-makers who had been “patronised by war criminals” carried out the attack at the high commission.
Tarique Rahman, elder son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, has been in London since 2008 and facing multiple charges of corruption back in Bangladesh.
Speaking at the human chain, State Minister for Information Advocate Tarana Halim said though over a month has passed since the attack took place, no adequate measures have been taken to bring the perpetrators to book.
On February 7, the day before a special court in Dhaka pronounced verdict against Khaleda Zia in a graft case, BNP activists allegedly forced their way into the Bangladesh High Commission in London and assaulted its employees and vandalised some of its valuables.
Following demonstration by the UK chapter of BNP and its front organisations, a group of demonstrators entered the high commission in the name of submitting a memorandum, according to a press release issued by the high commission.
The release was circulated among journalists during a press conference by the foreign ministry the next day.
At yesterday's human chain, leaders and activists from different front organisations, including Jubo League and Chhatra League, of the ruling AL along with freedom fighters, teachers, cultural activists, doctors, engineers, and intellectuals took part.
After the human chain, the protesters marched towards the British High Commission in Gulshan to submit a memorandum demanding trial of the perpetrators.
Hayatul Islam Khan, deputy commissioner (Diplomatic Security Division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said he had received the memorandum from some BSJ leaders around noon as the British High Commission was closed yesterday.
It will be sent to the commission later, said the DC.
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