DHAKA, Nov 9: Bangladeshi police today brought home from Thailand a former army officer sentenced to death by a court here for assassinating the country's founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in 1975.Major Bazlul Huda, one of the 15 people sentenced to death here on Sunday in connection with the August 15, 1975 assassination, was extradited from Bangkok under an extradition treaty signed between Bangladesh and Thailand in July.
Huda, serving a sentence for shoplifting in Bangkok, was brought back home by officials after a Thai court upheld Bangladesh's extradition request, police said.
The prompt extradition from Thailand raised hopes today of bringing home more fugitives from the United States and Canada who were also sentenced to death for plotting the assassination of Mujibur Rehman, father of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Concluding a trial delayed 23 years by Bangladesh's bloody politics, a judge convicted 15 former military commanders on Sunday and ordered them to die by a firingsquad.
Eleven are still fugitives. The convicted men said they would appeal the sentence to a higer court.
``The extradition of Bazlul Huda has encouraged us to step up efforts to bring the others back home for justice,'' Shafiur Rahman, the top bureaucrat in the home ministry, said.
Meanwhile, at least three persons were killed and nearly 100 injured as sporadic incidents of violence and bomb blasts marked the opposition-led nation-wide general strike in Bangladesh since dawn today. Opposition parties announced extension of their 48-hour general strike by another 11 hours till 5 pm on Wednesday.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.