 "Sheikh Hasina, former prime minister of Bangladesh. Source: AFP | File.")
Bangladesh’s interim government wants Sheikh Hasina back.
The government headed by professor Muhammad Yunus has sent India a diplomatic note asking New Delhi to send Hasina back.
Hasina has been in India since August after she fled the student-led protests that ultimately toppled her government.
Yunus previously stated that his regime would look to extradite Hasina.
She has been living in exile in India ever since.
But what happened? What had Yunus said? And will New Delhi heed Dhaka’s call?
Let’s take a closer look:
What happened?
The Yunus government has sent a diplomatic note to New Delhi asking for Hasina to be extradited.
“We have sent a note verbale (diplomatic message) to the Indian government saying that Bangladesh wants her back here for the judicial process,” foreign affairs adviser Touhid Hossain was quoted as telling NDTV.
This, after Home Advisor Jahangir Alam said his office has sent India’s External Affairs Ministry a letter regarding Hasina’s extradition. "
We have sent a letter to the foreign ministry regarding her extradition. The process is currently underway," Alam was quoted as saying.
Alam was quoted as saying that an extradition treaty exists between Dhaka and New Delhi.
He added that Hasina could be sent back to Bangladesh under the terms of that treaty.
The development comes after the Bangladesh-based International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) issued arrest warrants for Hasina and several of her former Cabinet ministers, advisers, and military and civil officials for “crimes against humanity and genocide.”
Home affairs adviser Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury told Dhaka Tribune, “We have a prisoner exchange agreement with India. It will be carried out under that agreement
The development comes amid Bangladesh launching a probe into the alleged $5 billion embezzlement connected to a Russian-backed nuclear power plant by Hasina and her family.
It also comes weeks after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Bangladesh – the first high-level visit from India since Hasina was deposed.
Misri, amid strained bilaterial ties, held talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Mohammad Jashim Uddin.
Misri told reporters he and Uddin had a ‘frank, candid, and constructive exchange of views.’
They discussed a wide range of issues in the “extremely important bilateral relationship”.
Misri added that India brought up the issue of attacks on minorities, including Hindus, with Bangladesh leaders.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated over attacks on Hindus and the arrest of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das.
There have been a spate of incidents of violence against Hindus and other minorities as well as attacks on temples in the neighbouring countrythat triggered strong concerns in New Delhi.
Hasina in recent weeks has accused the Yunus-led interim government of perpetrating “genocide” and failing to protect minorities, especially Hindus, since her ouster.
As per NDTV, Hasina, giving a virtual address to Awami League supporters in London, said, “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.”
“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.”
What had Yunus said?
Yunus previously said that his administration will look to bring Hasina back from India.
Yunus made the speech on the anniversary of the interim government completing 100 days in power.
Yunus also said that his government has been continuing its all-out efforts to ensure the security of all citizens, including religious minorities.
“We must ensure justice in every killing…We will also ask India to send back fallen autocrat Sheikh Hasina,” Yunus was quoted as saying by the state-run BSS news agency.
Yunus has made conflicting remarks about Hasina’s extradition before.
Yunus, speaking to the UK-based Financial Times newspaper last month, said his government would not immediately seek Hasina’s extradition from India.
Yunus, who assumed office on August 8, claimed that about 1500 people, including students and workers, were killed while 19,931 others were wounded during the protest against the Hasina government.
“Our government is very careful to collect information on every death,” he said, adding that the government made arrangements for treatment of the injured in various specialised hospitals, including 13 hospitals in Dhaka.
Yunus earlier said she should ‘keep quiet’ until the country wants her back.
“No one is comfortable with her stance there in India because we want her back to try her. She is there in India and at times she is talking, which is problematic. Had she been quiet, we would have forgotten it; people would have also forgotten it as she would have been in her own world. But sitting in India, she is speaking and giving instructions. No one likes it,” Yunus had said.
“Everyone understands it. We have said quite firmly that she should keep quiet. This is an unfriendly gesture towards us; she has been given shelter there and she is campaigning from there. It is not that she has gone there on a normal course. She has fled following a people’s uprising and public anger,” he added.
Where is Hasina?
Hasina landed at the Hindon airbase near Delhi on August 5.
She was believed to have been shifted later to an unspecified location and has not been seen in public since then.
As per The Print, Hasina has been living a safe house in New Delhi’s Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone – a high security area where many current and former MPs stay – for the past two months.
As per the outlet, the safe house, in keeping with her status as a ‘dignitary’, is a full-sized Lutyens’ bungalow.
This is the kind that is usually allotted to ministers, senior Members of Parliament (MPs), and top officials.
The 77-year-old sporadically walks at Lodhi Garden unnamed sources told the outlet.
A source told the outlet she “has a strong security detail” and that she is guarded “around the clock” by plain-clothes personnel.
She left the airbase after two days because “arrangements there were not sufficient,” a source told The Print.
Hasina , 77, resigned and fled to India following massive protests by students and others against her government over a controversial quota system in government jobs.
Hasina and her party leaders face accusations of ordering brutal suppression of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, resulting in numerous casualties during the July-August protests.
According to Business Standard, Dhaka earlier revoked Hasina’s diplomatic passport.
India and Bangladesh also have an extradition treaty – originally signed in 2013 and simplified in 2016 – to make the process simpler.
However, the treaty has a provision which states that extradition can be denied if the offences are “political in nature.”
Will New Delhi heed Dhaka’s call?
It’s not an easy situation for India to be in – given the past decade and a half of support it gave Hasina and her Awami League.
Experts say New Delhi can’t afford to lose its sway in Dhaka.
“It’s time for India to do some introspection regarding its regional policy,” Debapriya Bhattacharya, a senior economist with the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka, told BBC.
Bhattacharya said New Delhi needs to examine if it has paid adequate attention to the viewpoints of its regional partners.
“I am not only talking about Bangladesh, [but also] almost all other countries in the region,” Bhattacharya added.
“It doesn’t matter how she is accorded hospitality in India. But it matters to Bangladeshis how she intervenes in the domestic matters staying over there. If she speaks against the current interim government, that would be considered as an act of hostility,” Bhattacharya earlier warned.
“It’s a setback in the sense that any turbulence in our neighbourhood is always unwanted,” Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, a former Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka told BBC in September_._
Chakravarty said “there is no choice” but to work with the present dispensation in Bangladesh and that “you can’t dictate what they do internally.”
They say there are no easy answers.
“India’s decision regarding Sheikh Hasina must balance legal obligations, humanitarian principles and strategic interests. The key considerations include legal assessment, human rights obligations and diplomatic strategy,” Karan Thukral, an Indian Supreme Court lawyer specialising in extradition matters, told DW.
“In matters of extradition, especially involving political figures, it’s imperative that we uphold the sanctity of legal principles over expedient diplomacy,” Thukral added.
“India’s response to Sheikh Hasina’s situation will not only affect bilateral relations but will also reflect the country’s commitment to the rule of law and the protection of fundamental human rights,” said Thukral.
Sreeradha Datta, a professor at the Jindal School of International Affairs, said New Delhi will think carefully before acting.
“These issues take time, as technical and judicial processes are involved. But more importantly, India will have to weigh in on the political considerations surrounding such a request,“ Datta told DW.
“Hasina will have the option of challenging it in court, which will take its own time,” Chakravarty told DW. “Moreover, there are clauses in the treaty related to political offenses which are not extraditable. I am unsure what will finally happen, but my guess is that the government can refuse to extradite,” he added.
India has thus far played it safe on Hasina.
Hindustan Times in September quoted External Affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal as saying this was in the “realm of hypothetical issues.”
“As we stated earlier, the former prime minister of Bangladesh came to India at very short notice for reasons of safety. We have nothing further to add on that matter,” Jaiswal added.
Business Standard quoted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar as saying in Parliament that Hasina had sought New Delhi’s permission to come to India “for the moment.”
‘Tried our best to curtail violence’
Yunus said his government is investigating every incident in a few cases where religious minorities were subjected to violence.
“We have tried our best so that any citizen of the country, not only Hindu community members, doesn’t become a victim of violence. We will continue these efforts,” he said in his address to the nation.
He said Bangladesh was a completely insecure country when the interim government assumed office.
Yunus said an attempt was made to spread unnecessary fear among the religious minorities.
“In some cases, they have also been subjected to violence. But all the hype about it was completely exaggerated. Those little cases of violence that took place were mainly political,” he said.
But ill efforts were made to make the country unstable again by giving religious colour to these events, he said, adding that the government dealt with the situation firmly with the cooperation of all.
He said that after two months of assumption of office by his government, Durga Puja was celebrated in around 32,000 puja mandaps across the country.
He said the government took extensive security preparations during the Durga Puja so that the Hindu community members celebrate the festival smoothly.
Hindus constitute just about 8 per cent of the 170 million Bangladesh population. The minority Hindu community members have faced regular vandalism of their businesses and destruction of temples during and since the protest erupted, resulting in the ouster of Prime Minister Hasina.
Yunus also said that the Election Commission (EC) will be formed soon while an election roadmap will be announced after competing reforms in the electoral system.
“Once the electoral reforms are decided, you will get the election roadmap very soon,” he said.
Noting that there is a question in everyone’s mind about when the elections will be held, Yunus said the government has started taking necessary steps to hold the elections.
‘So many cases against her’
Bangladesh’s foreign affairs advisor Mohammed Touhid Hossain, in August told Reuters TV that the country could ask India to extradite Hasina “since there are so many cases” against her
“Her staying in Delhi, in India, the question comes that…there are so many cases (against Sheikh Hasina) that could be… again some speculating, I am not a person right to answer this, if there is a request from there (Ministry of Home and Ministry of Law) we have to ask for her, you know, return to Bangladesh,” he said.
Hossain said if there is a demand from Bangladesh, that creates an embarrassing situation for the Indian government. “So I think the Indian government knows this and I am sure they will take care of it.”
Hossein added that Yunus is “very unhappy” about Hasina’s statements.
“So whatever actually is there, unless there are some, there are some secret points could be there. Otherwise, we want to make things public. And we have - I have just told him about the displeasure of the chief adviser and let us hope that they take care of it.”
With inputs from agencies