Bringing Tarique back may take time: UK envoy

Bringing back BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman to Bangladesh may take time, British High Commissioner Robert Chatterton Dickson said today.

Chatterton came up with comment while talking to reporters after a meeting with the law minister at the latter’s residence this morning.

He said he will take it up to the authorities of his country to find out how and under what legal circumstance Tarique has been staying in London.

“It is a time consuming because of legal procedures involved,” he said.

On the other hand, Law Minister Anisul Huq said in his briefing that fugitive convicts may create barriers between the ties of the two countries.

Tarique Rahman, senior vice chairman of BNP and the elder son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, has been living in London for the last nine years.

Convicted in several cases (in absentia) including that of the sensational August 21 grenade attack, he does not have any valid Bangladeshi travel document.

He had handed over his passport to the UK Home Office almost four years ago.

Bangladesh government wants to bring Tarique back and face punishment he received in three separate cases, including the Zia Orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases.

Besides, the Supreme Court in an order also barred media outlets and others from publishing any statement of Tarique Rahman.