Canada orders killer of Bangladesh’s ‘father’ deported

OTTAWA – The Canadian government has ordered the deportation of a former Bangladeshi army officer convicted in his home country for involvement in the 1975 assassination of the man considered the nation’s "father."

Nur Chowdhury, a retired lieutenant-colonel, faces the death penalty for the killing of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s first president, and father of the current prime minister, said Yakub Ali, Bangladesh’s high commissioner in Ottawa.

"(Chowdhury) is in Canada right now. He is under a deportation order," said Ali. "He was convicted in the 1975 killing of the father of the nation of Bangladesh."

Chowdhury is one of the 12 people convicted in Rahman’s killing.

According to the Bangladeshi English-language newspaper The Daily Star, Chowdhury and a retired major, Bazlul Huda, shot Rahman in the presidential residence on Aug. 15, 1975.

A group of junior army officers invaded the presidential palace that day and also killed the president’s family and personal staff. Only two daughters survived.

The Daily Star reported that Chowdhury had appealed his deportation to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Bangladeshi law minister was in Canada from Nov. 18 to Nov. 25, said Ali.