Staff Reporter:
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman yesterday urged India to expedite the extradition of convicted fugitive ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the suspected killers of Shaheed Osman Hadi to Bangladesh.
Foreign Minister Dr Khalilur Rahman disclosed this while briefing journalists at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi paid a courtesy call on the Prime Minister at the Secretariat yesterday.
“The issue of the return or extradition of convicted Hasina to Bangladesh came up, and we asked them to expedite the extradition process. We hope India will respond positively in this regard,” Khalilur said.
The foreign minister said the issue of extraditing the suspected killers of Shaheed Hadi, who have been arrested in India, was also raised during the meeting.
“We have provided India with all the documents they had requested. This is an extremely sensitive mat-ter for us, and we have asked them to extradite the killers to us as soon as possible,” he said.
Khalilur said a convicted person should be taken into custody and, if they have anything to say in their defence, should make their case before the court.
He said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier extended an invitation to Tarique Rahman through a letter handed over on the day the new government was formed.
Separately, the Prime Minister has been invited to attend the BRICS Summit in his capacity as the cur-rent Chair of BIMSTEC, Khalilur said, stressing that the two invitations should not be confused.
“We have not yet taken any decision on this matter,” he said when asked whether the Prime Minister would accept either the invitation.
Asked whether the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty and other river-related issues figured in the talks, Kha-lilur said the meeting was a courtesy call and such substantive matters were not normally discussed be-tween the Prime Minister and an ambassador.
