Thirty-eight years have passed since the killing of four national leaders at Dhaka Central Jail, but justice has yet to be done as none of the 11 convicted killers has been punished.
The government has failed to bring the killers back home due to non-cooperation of the countries they have been hiding in, according to some high officials.
The nation observes today the Jail Killing Day to mourn the four liberation movement heroes -- Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, AHM Quamruzzaman and M Mansur Ali.
The four leaders were shot dead following repeated bayonet charges at the jail on this day in 1975.
They were sent to jail soon after the August 15, 1975 bloodbath that claimed the lives of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members.
The four leaders had led the country's Liberation War while Bangabandhu was detained by the Pakistan army.
While talking to The Daily Star, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the killers of Bangabandhu and the four national leaders were living in the US, Canada, Pakistan, Libya and some Middle Eastern countries.
The attorney general, who is a member of the taskforce formed to bring the fugitive killers back, said the government had taken necessary steps to that end, but, unfortunately, those countries were not cooperating.
Maj (retd) Noor Chowdhury, one of the convicted killers, was in Canada and another convict Maj (retd) Rashed Chowdhury was in the USA, he said.
He added the USA and Canada had refused to extradite the killers saying their policy didn't support handover of a convict to a country where death sentence is executed.
Such policy did not reflect the reality in the acts of the USA, as that country sometimes launched attacks in another country to snatch its wanted criminals, Mahbubey Alam observed.
He said the countries, which were giving shelter to the killers of Bangabandhu and the four national leaders, could not feel that it was not impossible for them [the killers] to have connections with Islamist militancy.
The countries at least should have arrested them for the sake of justice and principle, he added.
Law Secretary ASSM Zahirul Haque Dulal told this correspondent that the Interpol issued warrants for arrest of the killers of Bangabandhu and the four national leaders, as they had been changing locations.
The government had sent letters to every country seeking their help in tracing and sending the fugitive convicts back home, he said, adding that the sub-registrar's offices across the country had been trying to trace their property for confiscation.
Contacted, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed, who heads the taskforce, repeated his previous statement that the government was trying its best to bring back the fugitive killers through diplomatic channel.
The Supreme Court on April 30 this year upheld the death penalty of three former army personnel and life term imprisonment of eight others for killing the four national leaders.
The three convicts, who were awarded death penalty, are Risalder (retd) Muslemuddin, Dafadar (dismissed) Marfat Ali Shah and Dafadar (dismissed) Abdul Hashem Mridha.
The eight convicts, who were handed down life term imprisonment, are Lt Col (dismissed) Khondaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col (relieved) Shariful Haq Dalim, Lt Col (retd) SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Lt Col (retd) AM Rashed Chowdhury, Maj (relieved) Ahmed Shariful Hossain, Capt (retd) Abdul Majed, Capt (relieved) Kismat Hasem and Capt (relieved) Nazmul Hossain.
The apex court affirmed the judgment of a Dhaka court which in 2004 convicted and sentenced Muslemuddin, Marfat Ali Shah and Abdul Hashem Mridha to death and handed down life term imprisonment on 12 others.
Of the 12 convicts, four -- Lt Col (dismissed) Syed Farooq-ur Rahman, Lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda and Maj (retd) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed -- have already been executed in the Bangabandhu assassination case.
In August 2008, the High Court upheld the capital punishment of Muslemuddin and acquitted Marfat and Hashem. It also acquitted Farooq, Shahriar, Mohiuddin and Bazlul Huda.

The HC did not say anything about the eight others who got life term imprisonment from the SC on April 30 this year.

In 2011, the SC exempted Farooq, Shahriar, Mohiuddin and Bazlul Huda from the jail killing case as they were already executed.