staff correspondent

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has said the government will further strengthen its diplomatic efforts to bring back the fugitive killers of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and four national leaders.

“A strong effort is on to bring back the convicted killers, who are hiding abroad. This diplomatic effort will be strengthened further in the days to come,” he said on Sunday.

Quader, also general secretary of Awami League, made the remarks while talking to reporters after placing a wreath at the portrait of Bangabandhu in front of the BangabandhuMemorialMuseum at Dhanmondi 32, marking the Jail Killing Day.

Awami League central leaders, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, placed the wreath and paid rich tributes to Bangabandhu and the four national leaders -- Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Nazrul Islam, Captain Mansur Ali and AHM Quamruzzaman.

Quader said the government is facing difficulties in bringing back the fugitive killers from the foreign countries as there is no provision of death penalty in those countries, reports UNB.

“However, high-level discussions are on with the heads of states and government to fix how they can be brought back,” he said.

He said two brutal incidents-- the assassination of Bangabandhu and most of his family members on August 15, and the killings of the four national leaders in 1975 -- were intermingled and the outcome of the same conspiracy.

On this day in 1975, the killers of Bangabandhu stormed into the Dhaka Central Jail in the early hours and killed the four national leaders, who led the Liberation War in the absence of Bangabandhu in 1971 and earned victory for the nation.