Bangladesh seeks extradition of former PM Hasina, sends request to India
The interim government in Bangladesh announced on Monday that it has sent a diplomatic note to the Indian government, requesting the extradition of the country’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
A prominent figure in the struggle for democracy, Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, fled the country under difficult circumstances and sought refuge in India on August 5 of this year.
Touhid Hossain, the interim government’s Foreign Affairs Advisor, confirmed the development on Monday afternoon.
“We have informed India. We have conveyed our request for Sheikh Hasina’s return for judicial purposes. This has been communicated through a note verbale (diplomatic note),” Hossain told local media.
Earlier in the day, the country’s Home Affairs Advisor, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, said that his ministry had written to Hossain’s office to facilitate the return of the ousted Prime Minister from India.
“We have sent a letter to the foreign ministry regarding her extradition. The process is currently underway. They have an extradition agreement with us,” Chowdhury was quoted as saying by Bangladesh’s leading Bengali daily Prothom Alo.
Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri traveled to Dhaka for talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Md. Jashim Uddin, as well as with Hossain and Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus. The meetings took place amid strained relations between the two countries, with India expressing concerns over rising extremist rhetoric, violence, and provocations, especially against the Hindu community, in Bangladesh.
In September, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held a bilateral meeting with Hossain on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, marking the first high-level engagement between the two countries since Hasina’s ouster in August.
Hasina has strongly condemned the “tortures” inflicted on common people, particularly minorities, by the interim government.
“A top leader of the Sanatan religious community has been unjustly arrested, and he must be released immediately,” said Hasina, President of the Bangladesh Awami League (AL), following the arrest and jailing of Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, a spokesperson of the Bangladesh Sammilit Sanatan Jagran Jote and an associate of Iskcon Bangladesh.
Hasina also criticized the attacks on religious sites, stating, “A temple has been burned in Chittagong. Previously, mosques, shrines, churches, monasteries, and houses of the Ahmadiyya community were attacked, vandalized, looted, and set on fire. Religious freedom and security of life and property of people of all communities should be ensured.”
She condemned the ongoing harassment of Awami League leaders, workers, students, and law enforcement members through assaults and arrests, calling the actions “anarchist.”
