Dhaka says New Delhi has an \u2018obligatory responsibility\u2019 to hand over the former leader, who was recently sentenced to death for last year\u2019s deadly crackdown on student-led uprising
\n New Delhi
\nBangladesh has again asked India to extradite former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was recently sentenced to death in absentia over last year\u2019s deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising.
\nTouhid Hossain, who holds the foreign affairs portfolio in Bangladesh\u2019s interim administration, on Sunday said Dhaka had sent a letter two days ago, urging New Delhi to hand over the fugitive ex-leader.
\nHasina, 78, has been in hiding in India \u2013 her close ally when she was the prime minister of Bangladesh for 15 years, until her autocratic rule was overthrown in a mass uprising in August 2024, in which more than 1,400 people were killed, according to the United Nations.
\nOn Monday, a special International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Dhaka convicted Hasina of crimes against humanity and sentenced her to death, fulfilling a key pledge by the interim government, led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus.
\nFollowing the court ruling, Bangladesh\u2019s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that India had an \u201cobligatory responsibility\u201d under a bilateral extradition treaty signed in 2013 to facilitate the former leader\u2019s return.
\nThe ministry said keeping Hasina is a \u201cgrave act of unfriendly behaviour\u201d, and called it \u201ca travesty of justice for any other country to grant asylum to these individuals convicted of crimes against humanity\u201d.
\nIndia\u2019s Foreign Ministry responded by saying it had \u201cnoted\u201d the Hasina verdict. But India has so far not commented on the prospects of her extradition. Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo says Dhaka has made at least three such extradition requests so far.
\nIndia\u2019s past support for Hasina has frayed relations between the two South Asian neighbours since her overthrow.
\nBut tensions appear to have eased slightly this week after Bangladesh\u2019s National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman visited India for a regional security summit, where he also met his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval. Media reports in Bangladesh said Rahman has invited Doval for a visit.
\nBangladesh will hold its first general elections since the protests in February. Hasina\u2019s party, the Awami League, is barred from any political activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dhaka says New Delhi has an \u2018obligatory responsibility\u2019 to hand over the former leader, who was recently sentenced to death for last year\u2019s deadly crackdown on student-led uprising New Delhi Bangladesh has again asked India to extradite former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was recently sentenced to death in absentia over last year\u2019s deadly crackdown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-516560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n