Bangladesh: Amid turmoil, Dhaka to seek Interpol help for Hasina’s extradition from India
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With India unlikely to extradite ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, 78, in a hurry to Bangladesh after a kangaroo tribunal sentenced her in absentia to death for alleged “crimes against humanity,” Dhaka is planning to seek Interpol’s help to get her, the media reported on Wednesday.
Amid internal turmoil and widespread riots after the verdict, Dhaka is preparing to seek assistance from Interpol for the extradition of ex-PM Hasina and former home minister Asad Uz-zaman Khan Kamal from India.
Meanwhile, China said that it was Bangladesh’s “internal affair” and declined to make any further comment on the matter.
The Muhammad Yunus-led Interim Government had urged New Delhi on Monday to extradite the two Awami League leaders who were sentenced to death sentence by the International Crimes Tribunal-Bangla Desh (ICT-BD), ironically set up by Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman in the early 1970s.
To ensure that the ICT-BD awarded Hasina the death sentence, the government reportedly sacked 17 judges from the body before the ruling came, according to media reports.
Soon after the verdict, the Bangladesh foreign ministry cited an extradition agreement with India and said it was an “obligatory responsibility” for New Delhi to ensure her return to Dhaka.
“Providing refuge to these individuals, who have been convicted of crimes against humanity, by any other country, would be a highly unfriendly act and a disregard for justice,” it said.
Reacting to it, India said it “noted” the verdict. “As a close neighbour, India remains committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh, including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country. We will always engage constructively with all stakeholders to that end,” the Ministry of External Affairs said.
However, India has not commented on the request for Hasina’s extradition. Experts said the treaty excludes the extradition of those facing political vendetta. So, before taking a decision, India is likely to wait for an elected government to replace the Interim Government, maybe next year. Besides, extradition is a lengthy process requiring review of tribunal documents to ensure due procedure, fair representation, and credible testimony.
Dhaka has said that New Delhi’s failure to extradite her would be “a highly unfriendly gesture and an affront to justice.”
“It is Bangladesh’s internal affair,”, the media quoted Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning as saying. China sincerely hopes that “Bangladesh will achieve solidarity, stability, and development” and that China is committed to a policy of good neighbourliness and friendship towards all people of Bangladesh.
Along with Sheikh Hasina, her co-accused and Bangladesh’s former home minister Asad Uz zaman Khan Kamal was also handed the death sentence. However, her other co-accused, former Inspector-General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who pleaded guilty and ‘cooperated’ with the prosecution, was given a lenient sentence of five years in prison.
According to a UN rights body, around 1,400 people were killed in July and August 2024 during the “student-led uprising” against Sheikh Hasina-led government that led to her ouster. After she was sentenced to death, it said that while it is an “important moment” for the victims of 2024 Bangladesh violence, the imposition of death penalty was regrettable.
On Monday, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said he “fully” agrees with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on the position that “we stand against the use of the death penalty in all circumstances.”
Ironically, the ICT-BD, set up by Sheikh Mujibur Rehman to investigate Pakistan’s war crimes after the genocide of the 1971 liberation war, has sentenced his own daughter, Sheikh Hasina. The tribunal, however, did nothing against the Pakistanis as Rehman made up with Islamabad and then opted to let things slide.
Hasina revived the tribunal which punished several Islamists who helped the Pakistanis.
