East Pakistan: Yunus-led Dhaka making a Nawaz out of Hasina!

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: Remember how a certain Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, once-upon-a-time cricket-star-turned Prime Minister of Pakistan (2018-22), duly supported by the Army, thrust several cases against his predecessor—and now the de facto successor—Nawaz Sharif, forcing him into exile for years, until he returned to pay back the faded star and put him in jail.

Taking inspiration from Islamabad, the Dhaka regime led by “Chief Advisor” Muhammed Yunus in Bangladesh (his ‘student’ supporters now want it restored as “East Pakistan!”) is doing ditto against his predecessor, Sheikh Hasina Wajed.

After the ouster of her elected government in August 2024, Yunus, burdened with a Nobel Peace Prize thanks to his anti-Indian American Democratic mentors like the Bidens, Obamas, and the Clintons, has trumped up cases against Hasina, her Awami League leaders, and left the hapless Hindus and other minorities to the mercy of Jamaaat-e-Islami and other Muslim fundamentalists.

Now a stooge of Pakistan as well, Yunus is leaving no stone unturned to fix Hasina before Donald Trump retakes the White House on January 20 and potentially tightens screws on Dhaka.

It is in this vein that Bangladesh’s army-controlled International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) on Monday issued arrest warrants against deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 11 others, including former military generals and an ex-police chief, for their alleged role in incidents of enforced disappearances. 

This was the second arrest warrant the ICT issued against Hasina, who fled to India after her Awami League regime was overthrown following unprecedented anti-government protests in July-August 2024. The tribunal has so far recorded three cases against her, the media reported on Monday. 

“Justice Md. Golam Mortuza Mojumdar, chairman of the tribunal, issued the arrest warrant after hearing a prosecution plea,” an ICT official said. 

The Inspector-General of Police was ordered to arrest the 12 people, including Hasina, and produce them before the tribunal on February 12 in the case filed over complaints of enforced disappearances of several hundred people. 

Hasina’s then-defence adviser Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique and former IGP Benazir Ahmed are among those named in the case. While Siddique is currently under custody, Ahmed is said to be on the run. 

ICT Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam did not disclose the names of most of the accused in the “interest of investigations and their arrest.” 

The next hearing for this case is also scheduled for February 12. The tribunal has instructed that the investigation report be submitted on that day if completed, Islam later told the media. 

He told the tribunal that the ousted regime had established a “culture of enforced disappearances under state sponsorship.” 

Islam claimed that those involved in carrying out these disappearances were rewarded, and agencies like the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the police’s Detective Branch (DB), the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, and the Directorate-General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) were most frequently used for the purpose. 

“Over the past 15 years, a culture of fear was established in Bangladesh through enforced disappearances and crossfires. Thousands of people were abducted by various forces, either in plainclothes or in uniform. Most of them never returned.”

In December 2024, Bangladesh officially sought Hasina’s extradition from India. While New Delhi acknowledged the receipt of the letter, it refrained from commenting on it. 

The ICT issued the first arrest warrant against her on October 17, 2024, on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the July-August 2024 protests and “students” uprising. 

After the fall of the Awami League government, at least 60 cases or complaints of enforced disappearances, killings, genocide, and crimes against humanity were lodged at the ICT, accusing Hasina, leaders of her party and its allies, and senior officials of different law enforcement agencies. 

A commission formed by Yunus’s interim government in December, in its provisional report, claimed the involvement of Hasina, her officials, and neighboring India in incidents of enforced disappearance.

The panel said it recorded 1,676 complaints of enforced disappearances and so far examined 758, of which 27 percent of the victims never returned.