Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said the government has already initiated the process to bring BNP senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman back to Bangladesh.

“The government is trying to bring back all fugitive convicts including Tarique Rahman to the country, to put them on trial,” the minister said. The government is holding discussions in this regard with governments of the countries where the fugitives are staying, he said.

The minister said this while talking to reporters after attending the inauguration of a training course for newly-appointed assistant judges at the Judicial Administration Training Institute in Dhaka.

Replying to a query, the law minister said the attorney general's office may take initiative regarding the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court's prompt hearing on the appeals filed by war crimes convicts against their convictions and sentences.

Earlier, while inaugurating the training course, Anisul Huq urged the judges to encourage litigants to settle their cases outside the court through alternative dispute resolution, so that the cases are disposed of within a short time and at a minimum cost.

Law Secretary ASSM Zahirul Haque also spoke to the programme, presided over by Justice Khondker Musa Khaled, director general of Judicial Administration Training Institute.