Where are they?

Six of the 12 convicted killers of Bangabandhu have been holed up in Libya, US, Canada, Pakistan and Kenya, one died in Zimbabwe, and the remaining five are behind bars at home.

Sources in the administration and intelligence agencies said some of the killers on the run travel to different countries for business purposes.

The government is working to have them extradited or deported back home with the apex court set to deliver its verdict in the historic murder case today.

Through intelligence sources, the government has gathered information about the whereabouts of those still at large. It is however maintaining absolute secrecy about the matter.

After Awami League came to power in 1996, it formed a taskforce to initiate moves to sign extradition treaties with different countries to bring back the murder convicts.

Former ambassador Wali-ur Rehman, who headed the taskforce-turned-cell till 1998, said that soon after taking office, the previous AL government cancelled diplomatic passports of the condemned killers only to see they secure Pakistani passports.

The six hiding abroad are Lt Col (dismissed) Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col (relieved) Shariful Haque Dalim, Lt Col (retd) Nur Chowdhury, Lt Col (retd) AM Rashed Chowdhury, Capt Abdul Mazed and Risalder Moslehuddin.

Sources say Khandaker Rashid, one of the key plotters of the massacre of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family, is settled in Benghazi of Libya where he owns a construction business.

He used to be a frequent visitor to Pakistan before he was admitted to a hospital there following a road crash a couple of weeks back.

Dalim lives in Pakistan and often travels to Libya, in particular Benghazi. He visited Bangladesh during the BNP-led four-party alliance rule, add the sources.

Wali-ur Rehman said Dalim has business in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and some other African countries. He even has managed a Kenyan passport.

According to intelligence sources, Nur Chowdhury and Rashed Chowdhury are in Canada and the US.

Wali-ur however disputes the information.

Talking to The Daily Star, he said Nur has been living in Libya and seeking asylum in Canada. Rashed, on the other hand, is trying for asylum in the US.

Abdul Mazad is hiding in Benghazi, while Moslemuddin might be in the Libyan city or somewhere in Bangladesh.

Wali-ur said Mazed was the last man to leave the country in 1996. He said the immigration police had stopped him in the airport in 1997, but he somehow managed to slip through the checks.

Moslemuddin had been in India till 2000. There, he was arrested twice, but the Indian cops could not crack his real identity as he had been using aliases.

Wali-ur said following a tip-off from a Pakistan intelligence source Moslemuddin left India before the then Bangladesh government gave India his pictures and particulars.

During the rule of HM Ershad, Farooq and Rashid returned to Dhaka and floated Freedom Party.

Farooq contested the 1986 presidential election and his party took part in the 1988 parliamentary elections, boycotted by the major political parties.

Freedom Party participated in the controversial election of February 15, 1996. The farcical polls saw Lt Col Rashid elected a lawmaker.

Some sources said Rashid visited Bangladesh during the last caretaker government rule. He even gave an interview to Channel i.

Wali-ur said the cell became inactive after he stood down as its chief.

Though it was not closed officially during the BNP-Jamaat rule, many of its important documents had gone missing.

The five on the death row are Lt Col Syed Farooq Rehman, Lt Col Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Lt Col Mohiuddin, Maj Mohiuddin and Maj Bazlul Huda.

Of them, Lt Col (retd) Mohiuddin Ahmed was deported to Bangladesh from Los Angeles on June 17, 2007, after a US court rejected his appeal for residency.

Huda was extradited from Bangkok on the day the trial court pronounced verdict in 1998.