Bangladesh has formally called for India to return the former premier, who is being tried in local courts for mass murder. India has not reacted.
On Tuesday, Bangladesh declared that it will regard India’s refusal to repatriate former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as a violation of their extradition agreement.
Hasina is accused of mass murder and enforced disappearances in Bangladeshi courts. She fled to India on August 5 of last year after student-led protests overthrew her Awami League (AL) government.
In 2013, India and Bangladesh inked an extradition deal that allows for deportation upon legal request.
“We have formally requested in a letter to India that former Prime Minister Hasina be extradited. In the capital Dhaka, law adviser Asif Nazrul told reporters, “It would be a blatant breach of the extradition treaty between Bangladesh and India if India did not deport her.”
“How we handle the situation in the international community will be decided by the Foreign Ministry,” he continued.
“We have already asked Interpol to place Hasina under a red notice. We’ll do every effort to get her to return so that she can be sued,” Nazrul declared.
Bangladesh formally requested that India return Hasina, but India has not yet responded.
Two arrest warrants were issued against her for her suspected role in enforced disappearances and mass killings by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh, which was set up by Hasina’s government to try crimes against humanity.
Additionally, it mandated that authorities appear in court with Hasina by February 12.
Evidence of Hasina’s involvement as a “instructor” in the claimed forced disappearances during her 15-year rule was discovered in a report given by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance, which was established under the interim administration headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
However, Hasina has refuted the accusations on numerous occasions.
Additionally, Nazrul declared that by February of this year, all litigation brought under the nation’s Digital Security Act (DSA), which was put into effect during Hasina’s government, will be dropped.
In addition to dismissing all politically driven “ghost cases” nationwide, he declared that “all the cases under the act will be withdrawn.”
