Tarique to be brought back by any means

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday expressed her firm resolve to take back BNP acting chairperson Tarique Zia from London by any means and bring him under the ambit of law.

"We'll bring him back to the country by any means Inshallah, and put him on trial," she said.

The prime minister was speaking at a reception accorded to her marking Bangladesh's becoming eligible for graduating to a developing country from a least developed one.

Hasina said she has already talked to the British government in this connection. "[I told them] he [Tarique] is a convicted criminal. How he's staying here? So, return him quickly."

Turning to the recent attack on Bangladesh High Commission in London where the attackers vandalised the portrait of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, she said how dare they do it!

"This is our high commission; we got the high commission as Bangladesh attained the Independence. These culprits insulted the pictures of the Father of the Nation storming into the High Commission … let me ask, where did they get so much courage from?"

Coming down heavily on the officials who were in the high commission at that time for their reluctance when the culprits were vandalising it, Hasina asked, "Why couldn't they take any step to do something against the vandalism? This is my big question.”

Hasina urged the expatriate Bangladeshis living in the UK to give a befitting reply to this heinous ransacking in the Bangladesh High Commission.

Branding Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman as killers, Hasina said the country has to be saved from these killers.

She also mentioned that Tarique is continuing his terrorist acts living in London like what he did in Bangladesh.