BNP leader Tarique Rahman is committing terrorist acts from London, says Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina vowing to bring him back to Bangladesh to face justice.
Talks have been opened with the UK government and he will be extradited “by any means”, she said on Saturday.
Hasina was addressing a reception at the Methodist Central Hall in London organised by the Awami League’s UK chapter, reports BSS.
"We've already talked to the British government for Tarique's extradition. How he is staying in London after being convicted?"
Tarique is leading the party from exile since his mother, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, was jailed for five years in a corruption case on Feb 8.
He, too, was convicted in the same case and sentenced to 10 years in jail. The BNP acting chairperson has been also found guilty of money laundering and received a 7-year term.
Tarique, who faces trials in several others charges, including for an assassination attempt on Hasina, went to the UK in 2008 after he was released in parole during the military-installed caretaker regime.
“We are trying to get him back. We will bring him back by any means,” the prime minister told the London gathering of Bangladeshis.
Tarique committed terrorist acts at home and like that he is now perpetrating the same crimes from the British capital, she said, before adding, “Think that how a big terrorist he is?"
She claimed the Bangladesh High Commission in London was attacked at the behest of Tarique. The prime minister also came down hard on the mission officials. “I don’t who we were there on that day, but my question is, why couldn’t they do anything?”
Criticising the BNP for nominating a convict to stand for Khaleda, she concluded that the party actually had no leader.
Brushing aside allegations of graft charges against the BNP chief as politically motivated, the prime minister said “We could have done this in 2013 or 2014 if we wanted to.” Hasina said
The BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami “should be ashamed of corruption during their tenure”.
“And now they are out to defame Bangladesh by using the money they earned illegally,” she said.
Eminent journalist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, State Minister for Women and Children Meher Afroz Chumki and local Awami League leaders addressed the reception chaired the Awami League’s UK unit’s President Sultan Mahmud Sharif.