Bangladesh to seek Sheikh Hasina’s extradition from India, says interim govt chief advisor Muhammad Yunus

Bangladesh’s interim government chief advisor Muhammad Yunus on Sunday said that the new regime will seek the extradition of exiled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina from India.

Hasina fled to India on August 5 after protests against her regime escalated. In his televised address to the nation on his first 100 days in office, Yunus said the government would try those responsible including the ex-PM for hundreds of deaths during the student-led protests, AP reported.

“We will seek the return of the fallen autocrat Sheikh Hasina from India. I have already discussed the issue with chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan,” the Nobel laureate, who took charge as the chief advisor of the interim government on August 8, said.

Bangladesh seeks Interpol’s help to bring back Hasina

On November 12, a special tribunal in Bangladesh asked Interpol to issue a red corner notice for the arrest of Sheikh Hasina in connection with the deaths of hundreds of protesters during protests against her.

B.M. Sultan Mahmud, a prosecutor at the tribunal, told The Associated Press that they wrote to Interpol through the police chief seeking assistance from the France-based organization in the arrest of Hasina and others.

Red notices issued by the global police body alert law enforcement agencies worldwide about fugitives.

“Those responsible for the indiscriminate killings during the mass uprising in July and August will be brought back from wherever they have taken refuge”, Asif Nazrul, the interim government’s law advisor, told AFP.

India is a member of Interpol, but the red notice does not mean New Delhi must hand Hasina over. The ex-PM has been summoned to appear in court in Dhaka on November 18 to face charges of “massacres, killings, and crimes against humanity”.

Hundreds of people were also killed in the violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government, taking the death toll to more than 1,000 since the protests first started in mid-July.