Bangladesh has urged the United States to extradite the killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to Bangladesh before the 100th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.
The request was made during a meeting between Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department on Monday morning.
“Both US and Bangladesh believe in the rule of law and we told them that we will be happy if the US government returns the killer before the nation celebrates Bangabandhu’s 100th birth anniversary,” Mr Momen told reporters after his meeting.
He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stands for “zero tolerance” against terrorism and in view of that the US should consider this long-pending request.
The Bangladesh government has repeatedly asked the US to cancel Bangabandhu’s alleged killer Rashid Chowdhury’s political asylum and extradite him, but legal complexities have prevented any progress on that front.
The meeting between Mr Momen and Mr Pompeo lasted for nearly 35 minutes and the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister called it “very productive and useful”.
The two leaders discussed US investment opportunities into Bangladesh and US support to put pressure on Myanmar to allow voluntary repatriation of Rohingya refugees to their homeland.
Bangladesh also offered to import cotton from the United States and urged the US to grant a special treatment in terms of tariff for finished apparel products made out of US cotton.
It also urged the US to invest in Bangladesh’s gas and energy sector.
“We have 100 economic zones in Bangladesh and other countries have made large investments. We want the US to invest and benefit from the opportunities presented by these zones,” said the Foreign Minister.
He said the trade between the two countries has more than trebled from 300 million dollars to 1.1 billion dollars in the last three years.
“There’s a lot of opportunity to expand this trade even further,” said Mr Momen.
He extended an invitation to his counterpart to visit Dhaka at the earliest and also expressed the hope that President Trump, too, will make a visit in the near future.
This was the highest-level meeting between the two countries since the Dec 30 elections.
“On Tuesday, the minister will meet USAID administrator Mark Green and Senator Christopher Murphy,” said Bangladesh embassy spokesperson Shamim Ahmed.
The US State department is expected to issue its own statement on the Foreign Minister’s visit and his meeting with Secretary Pompeo.