The return of BNP Vice Chairman and former Dhaka city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, who’s battling cancer at the United States, will be “assessed humanely,” assured State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam.
“Our mission on New York will take necessary measures if Sadeque Hossain Khoka’s family applies for a travel permit there,” he said in a post on his Facebook page on Sunday (Nov 3).
“Since he and his wife don’t have passports, this is the only way to travel to one’s country from another country internationally,” he wrote.
Alam said that the Bangladesh consulate in New York has been informed of the matter.
“There are cases against Sadeque Hossain Khoka and his wife; maybe there are arrest warrants too (I’m not sure),” he said in the status.
He added that he has spoken to the home minister who has assured that Khoka’s arrival will be considered humanely.

Two-time mayor of the undivided Dhaka city, a post he held for nine years, Khoka has a 10-year prison sentence for graft on his head.
He has been undergoing treatment for kidney cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, New York since 2014.
Khoka’s condition has been deteriorating Oct 28 and earlier on Sunday BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Khoka has expressed his wish to be buried in Bangladesh after he dies. He called on the government to facilitate his return.