Why Bangladesh is calling Canada a hub for all murderers

Just as India is raising the issue of Canada giving a safe space to Khalistani extremists who carry out terror activities in India, Bangladesh has accused Canada of harbouring killers. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau kicked up a diplomatic storm by linking India to the murder of a Canadian citizen and Khalistani terrorist wanted by Indian security agencies, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed in a gurdwara in Surrey, Canada, in June. Trudea's accusation was based on "credible allegations''. The diplomatic spat has brought to light how criminal fugitives not only find a safe space in Canada but also keep executive acts of terror in India.

Bangladesh has jumped into the issue by accusing Canada of harbouring killers. Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has said Canada must not be a "hub of all the murderers". "Murderers can go to Canada and take shelter, and they can have a wonderful life while those he killed, their relatives are suffering," Momen said in a TV interview recently.

When asked about Bangladesh's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman's killer who continues to live in Canada, Momen said, "He’s having a good life in Canada. He has been there. We have been requesting the Canadian government to send back the self-confessed killer of Bangabandhu, the father of our nation. Unfortunately, Canada is not listening to us and they have come up with a variety of excuses. So, we also went to the Canadian court to understand what is the status, since he has been staying in Canada for a long time." Momen said.




Who are the Bangladeshi assassins Canada is sheltering?
In 1975, a coterie of middle-level Army officers planned a coup to topple Sheikh Mujib's elected government and replace it with a military government. They chose August 15, India's independence day, to carry out the coup.

Rahman, who was then the President of Bangladesh, was assassinated along with most of his family members on August 15, 1975, by a group of Army officers in a coup. President Rahman, his wife Begum Mujib, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russell, daughters-in-law, and brother Sheikh Naser were all killed by those army officers.

A daughter of Rahman, Sheikh Hasina, who along with his sister was away when Rahman and his family members were killed, is currently the prime minister of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is trying to bring back two of the fugitive army officers who were involved in shooting dead the country's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and members of his family in cold blood at their Dhaka house on August 15, 1975. Bangladesh's Law & Justice Minister Anisul Huq in an exclusive interview with PTI last month said that his country was negotiating a return of two "self-confessed killers" of Sheikh Mujib - Rashed Chowdhury from the US and SHBM Noor Chowdhury from Canada.

"While the whereabouts of Major Shariful Haque Dalim, (a principal plotter behind the killing) is still not known, we know that Col Rashed Chowdhury is in the US and Noor Chowdhury, another of the coup plotter involved in the killing of Bangabandhu is in Canada," Huq said.

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, ET reported recently. Canada remains obstinate on its position on the matter of extradition. sources told ET.

Several requests by the Bangladesh government to extradite Noor Chowdhury have fallen on deaf ears and Dhaka may yet again move Ottawa on the issue, ET has reported.

"They killed the father of the nation and 17 members of his family... Given the heinous nature of the crime, we have tried to convince Canada to return Noor Chowdhury," the minister told PTI.

Two years ago, Abdul Majed, a former captain in the Bangladesh army and one of the killers, was hanged. He ha dbeen hiding in Kolkata. Ten years before that, five other convicts -- Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Mohiuddin Ahmed -- were executed in January 2010, while a fifth Aziz Pasha died in Zimbabwe.