Joy for issuing 'Interpol red notice' for Tarique

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina's ICT affairs adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy on Wednesday said the government should immediately issue a new 'Interpol red notice' for BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, reports UNB.

Joy, also the prime minister’s son, said this after a trial court had sentenced Tarique Rahman, son of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia, to life-term imprisonment in 21 August grenade attack cases.

A red notice is an international alert for a wanted person but is not an international arrest warrant.

Twenty two people including the AL secretary for women’s affairs Ivy Rahman were killed in the attack in 2004, which the prosecution claimed was aimed at Sheikh Hasina, then opposition leader.

A judge of the trial court awarded death sentence to 19 people, including former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu while Tarique Rahman and 18 others jailed for life in the verdict.

After the verdict was pronounced, Joy writes in his Facebook post, "We should also ask the UK to extradite him."

"We don't have an official extradition treaty with the UK, but UN charter requires any member states to extradite or convict in their courts upon request. The UK has recently extradited four ISIS terror suspects to the US even though they may face the death penalty," the son of incumbent prime minister writes.

Joy adds: "It took 42 years until our Awami League government came to power and we were able to bring Jamaat [Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami] to justice for war crimes during our War of Liberation. It took 34 years and the Awami League's return for my family to get justice for the murder of father of the nation Bangabandhu and my family on 15 August 1975."

"Today after 14 years we are getting justice for the grenade attack on my mother and the murder of many people I knew well, including Ivy Rahman," he says.