The Interpol has issued a ‘red corner’ notice for arrest of BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman, a prime accused in the Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka.
Tarique, the eldest son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, has been living in London for the past six years.
His Bangladesh passport is no longer valid and has not been renewed — so he lives in London as a refugee, reliable sources in London and Dhaka indicate.
The Interpol ‘most wanted’ list has carried Tarique’s picture with details, saying Bangladesh is seeking him to stand trial in the 2004 case.
The Aug 21 case was filed over killing of 24 in the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue during the tenure of BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition.
Tarique, then a powerful figure in the coalition government, is one of the prime accused as an alleged mastermind of the conspiracy leading to the attack.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who addressed that rally, barely survived that attack but her hearing was affected.
Police say subsequent investigations have revealed that the assassination of then the Leader of the Opposition Hasina was the main motive of the attack.
Of the 52 accused in the case, 19, including Tarique, are fugitives.
He has also been implicated in a few other cases of treason and defamation for peddling his very own version of Bangladesh’s contemporary history, which includes dubbing the nation’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as a ‘Pakistani collaborator’.
The High Court has also forbidden Bangladesh media and citizens from reporting statements by Tarique Rahman in all forms of media and social media like Facebook and Twitter.
The Interpol has not said on its website when Tarique’s name was put on the wanted list.
He was the last on the list of 67 Bangladeshis wanted by the Interpol.
Earlier, the Interpol issued a red corner notice against fugitive war criminal Abdul Jabbar.
According to the Interpol notice, Tarique’s birthday is Nov 20, 1967 and he knows Urdu alongside Bengali and English.
The red notice, one of the Interpol’s eight types of notices, means that the government and the judiciary of the relevant country are looking for the person to try him or to punish him.
The member countries of Interpol can exchange information on fugitives.
As Tarique is in the UK, the British government can arrest him if they are satisfied with a complaint of Bangladesh, if they get any.
In that case, the British government will try him first. An extradition treaty is needed to bring him back to Bangladesh to stand trial.
Assistant Inspector General of Police Mahbubur Rahman Bhuyian said the return of Tarique would depend on the diplomatic contacts between Bangladesh and the UK.
“That’s not Interpol’s concern,” he said.
Tarique went to London on being released on parole citing health issues during the emergency in 2008.
But he kept taking part in political programmes there. The government is trying to bring him to Bangladesh since he is facing arrest warrants.
The foreign ministry sent a letter in this regard to the UK in January.
The Bangladesh High Commission in London was also instructed to report his latest status.
The government in its letter to the UK mentioned that Tarique was taking part in political programmes in violation of the refugee treaty signed in 1958.
According to officials in Dhaka and London, Tarique renewed his passport in December 2008 for the last time after going there in September the same year.
The passport expired in 2013.
He has not contacted the Bangladesh High Commission in London since then. A source in the High Commission also confirmed that he did not have the British passport either.
It is believed that he could not visit Malaysia after the death of his younger brother Arafat Rahman Coco due to the passport issue.
Source: Bd news24