India ready to extradite Nur Hossain: Bangladesh

Dhaka: Bangladesh on Wednesday said India has agreed to deport Nur Hossain, who was arrested in Kolkata last month and is wanted in connection with the killing of seven people in the suburbs of the capital.
“India has agreed to extradite Nur Hossain,” Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali told Parliament while replying to a question by a lawmaker of the main opposition Jatiya Party. He said India’s assurance came after the request was made to Sushma Swaraj during her maiden stand-alone official tour here as the External Affairs Minister.
He said an official request will now be sent to India to bring back Hossain.
After Swaraj’s meetings here, the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry had said, “We are not sanctuary for criminals” and if there are any criminals, they will be sent back.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad of West Bengal police had arrested Hossain along with two other accomplices last month after he fled to Kolkata to evade justice at home.
Hossain, a local leader of the ruling Awami League, is alleged to be the key mastermind behind the murders of seven people in suburban Narayanganj nearly three months ago. The murders sparked a massive public outrage as it was alleged that several personnel of the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were involved in the crime. The seven people murdered, including a lawyer, were kidnapped by assailants from the suburban river port city on April 27 and their nearly decomposed bodies were retrieved later from the Shitalakya river. The incident prompted the government to immediately sack two army officials and a navy officer who were serving the RAB on deputation as the families of the victims complained that Hossain, himself a city councilor, engaged them to abduct and kill in exchange of huge bribes. The three officers – an army lieutenant colonel, a major and a navy lieutenant commander — were arrested subsequently and after weeks of interrogation in police custody they confessed their involvement in pre-trial testimonies separately before a magistrate.  (PTI)