Bangladesh: Opposition BNP calls on India to extradite deposed PM Sheikh Hasina to face trial

Dhaka: The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has called on India to extradite deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently taking refuge in New Delhi after widespread protests in her country forced her to resign and flee the country, in order to face trial of "plotting to thwart the country's revolution". Notably, Hasina is facing numerous criminal charges in Bangladesh, including mass murder in 2013.

"It  is our call to you that you should hand her over to the government of Bangladesh in a legal way. The people of this country have given the decision for her trial. Let her face that trial," said BNP Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alangir was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the Daily Star newspaper. He also said India is seemingly not keeping its commitment towards democracy by providing shelter to her.

"Staying there, she has started various plots to thwart the revolution that happened in Bangladesh," he alleged. More than 600 people have been killed in Bangladesh since the massive protest by students against the controversial quota system for government jobs began in mid-July and accelerated into a violent anti-government agitation.

'Fascist rule weakened Bangladesh's independence': BNP

Last week, Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal started an investigation against the former premier and nine others on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity that took place from July 15 to August 5 during students' mass movement against her government. An interim government was formed after the fall of the Hasina-led regime, and 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been appointed as its Chief Adviser.

The BNP secretary general said the people of this country do not consider her offences as minor. He said they think her "fascist rule has weakened Bangladesh's independence and hindered the country's progress for the last 15 years". She also made a debt burden of Tk 18 lakh crores for the nation and nearly $100 billion were siphoned off from the country, Fakhrul added.

BNP chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, 79, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft in 2018 under the rule of Hasina. Zia, currently undergoing treatment for various ailments, was released on an executive order from President Mohammed Shahabuddin after the Hasina-led government fell.

Mass murder charges against Hasina

An application was filed with a court in Bangladesh on Sunday to register a case against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 33 others, accusing them of carrying out a mass murder by indiscriminately firing on a rally organised in 2013 by Hefazat-e-Islam. Babul Sardar Chakhari, chairman of the Bangladesh People's Party (BPP), applied to the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Zaki-Al-Farabi, accused them of the "mass murder" during the rally at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel on May 5, 2013. 

This is the latest in a string of criminal cases filed against Hasina, 76, whose Awami League government was ousted by student protests raging since mid-July. The deposed PM was slapped with a murder case along with six others over the death of a grocery shop worker amid the unrest, and a case of enforced disappearance was filed against her on the very next day.

Yunus on Sunday accused Hasina of destroying every institution of the country in her efforts to stay in power as he promised to hold a free, fair and participatory election as soon as his government completes the "mandate" of carrying out "vital reforms." “In their efforts to stay in power, Sheikh Hasina's dictatorship destroyed every institution of the country. The judiciary was broken. Democratic rights were suppressed through a brutal decade-and-a-half long crackdown," United News of Bangladesh quoted Yunus as saying through his Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam.

(with PTI inputs)

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