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New Delhi:
The interim government in Bangladesh has sent a diplomatic note and urged India to send deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina back to Dhaka. The 77-year-old Awami League leader has been living in India since August 5 when she fled Bangladesh amid massive protests that brought down her 16-year-old regime and forced her to flee.
The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has issued arrest warrants in names of Sheikh Hasina and her ministers, advisors and former military and civil officials, accusing them of “crimes against humanity and genocide”.
Touhid Hossain, the foreign affairs adviser in the interim government, told reporters, “We have sent a note verbale (diplomatic message) to the Indian government saying that Bangladesh wants her back here for the judicial process.”
Earlier, Home Advisor Jahangir Alam said his office has sent a letter to the External Affairs Ministry here to facilitate Ms Hasina’s extradition. “We have sent a letter to the foreign ministry regarding her extradition. The process is currently underway,” he told the media.
Mr Alam said an extradition treaty exists between Dhaka and New Delhi Ms Hasina could be taken back to Bangladesh under that arrangement.
The diplomatic communication seeking Sheikh Hasina’s return comes weeks after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Bangladesh and spoke to Chief Advisor in the interim government, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Speaking to reporters in Dhaka, Mr Misri had said he had a frank, candid, and constructive exchange of views with his interlocutors and discussed the entire gamut of issues in the “extremely important bilateral relationship”. He said India had also raised the issue of attacks on minorities, including Hindus, with Bangladesh leaders.
A statement from the Chief Advisor’s office had said that Sheikh Hasina’s stay in India was also discussed. The Chief Advisor had then said, “Our people are concerned because she is making many statements from there. It creates tensions.”
Ahead of the Foreign Secretary’s visit, Ms Hasina targeted the interim government and accused Muhammad Yunus of running a “fascist regime”. In a virtual address to Awami League supporters in London, she alleged that Muhammad Yunus was the “mastermind” behind the political turmoil that ended her regime.
“Since August 5, the attacks on minorities, places of worship of Hindus, Christians and Buddhists have been rampant. We condemn it. The Jamaat and terrorists are having a free run under the new regime,” she said. “Bangladesh is now under the grip of a fascist regime where people’s democratic rights have been obliterated. Our government’s achievements in poverty alleviation and infrastructure development, strengthening of democracy were being undone under Yunus’s leadership,” she added.
