BNP urges India to repatriate former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina after UN report

Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Thursday urged India to repatriate Sheikh Hasina for trial, citing a UN fact-finding report that accused her ousted regime of orchestrating systematic attacks and killings to retain power last year.

Addressing the media, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the report confirmed mass killings, human rights violations, and democratic suppression under Hasina’s orders. He called Hasina a “fascist” and thanked the UN committee for its findings.

Hasina’s nearly 16-year rule under the Awami League (AL) ended in a student-led uprising on August 5, 2024, after which she reportedly fled to India.

“We therefore call upon the Indian government today to immediately return her (Hasina) and her accomplices to Bangladesh and hand her over to the government for trial,” Alamgir said.

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The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Fact-Finding Report: ‘Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh’ was released on Wednesday.

It said: Hasina’s former government, security and intelligence services, alongside violent elements associated with the Awami League party, systematically engaged in a range of serious human rights violations during last year’s student-led protests.

In the aftermath of the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government last year, “widespread attacks were reported against Hindu homes, businesses and places of worship, especially in rural and historically tense areas such as Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat, and Dinajpur, as well as other places such as Sylhet, Khulna, and Rangpur,” it said.

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The report said this destruction was especially prevalent in areas perceived to be sympathetic to the Awami League as Hindus have often been stereotypically associated with this political faction.It also documents that Hasina’s Awami League (AL) government had cracked down on protesters and others resulting in “hundreds of extrajudicial killings.

“Alamgir expressed his party’s relief “as the truth about the ruthless incidents was uncovered through the UN report” and added that “the problem is that when the United Nations speaks, we all believe it, but when we, the political parties, say it, many are reluctant to believe.“Bangladesh’s interim government of Muhammad Yunus too has welcomed the report.

Dhaka has earlier officially requested Hasina’s extradition; New Delhi has acknowledged the receipt of the request but has not further elaborated.Hasina has been accused of numerous cases on charges such as “crimes against humanity”, mass murders, enforced disappearances and corruption during her rule, particularly during the students’ movement in July and August last year.

The OHCHR estimated that “as many as 1,400 people may have been killed” over 45 days, with the vast majority of them “shot by Bangladesh’s security forces” with children making up 12 to 13 per cent of those killed.UN rights chief Volker Turk while releasing the report told reporters that his office “found reasonable grounds to believe” that indeed the top echelons of the previous government were aware, and, in fact, were involved in (the killings).

Asked about violent incidents after the ouster of the past government Turk said his office had only examined the situation up to mid-August.But the UN report noted “lynchings and other serious retaliatory violence” against police and Awami league officials or supporters in the days after Hasina’s fall.

It said many police officers feared showing up for work and the police effectively ceased functioning in many places that facilitated further apparent revenge violence as well as opportunistic crime.

“Awami League provided OHCHR a detailed list with names, dates and causes of killings according to which 144 officials and members of Awami League and its affiliated organisations were killed during attacks that occurred between July 1 and August 15 in 2024, including 23 deaths up to August 3, 35 deaths on August 4, 68 deaths on August 5 and another 18 deaths between August 6 and 15.”

It said according to police, 44 of their officers were killed and 2,308 were injured during the period between July 1 and August 15 while paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and para-police Ansar each reported the killings of three of their men.

The report also said that after August 6, there were localised efforts by BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, student groups, and social organisations to protect houses and places of worship of the Hindu community but also said that “some local members and supporters of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami opposition parties bear responsibility for human rights abuses committed during revenge attacks, including against members of the Hindu community.”

With inputs from agencies