'If there's a legal obligation...': Bangladesh CA Yunus on Hasina's extradition request

Bangladesh’s Interim Chief Advisor  Muhammad Yunus claimed that India would probably continue to host former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina if it were given a “free choice”. The remarks from Yunus came just days after New Delhi maintained that matters related to the Awami League leader are "legal" in nature and require “consultations” between both nations.

Yunus went on to hint that “some external forces” want Hasina to come back into Bangladeshi politics. The Nobel laureate went on to stress that the interim govt - formed after Hasina’s ouster last year following massive protests - is “very alert” about communal harmony. Yunus dismissed reports of attacks against Hindu minorities in the country, describing them as “fake news,” The Times of India reported.

The Bangladesh chief advisor maintained that his message to them, when he meets the community’s leaders, “is don’t go back and say, ‘I’m a Hindu, so protect me’… always say, ‘I’m a citizen of this country. I’m entitled to all the protection the state is supposed to give me”.

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Yunus on Hasina

While speaking to Mehdi Hassan of online media outlet Zeteo, Yunus gave insights into what he told Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the extradition of Hasina. “Two things: first, I said you want to keep her, I can’t tell you what to do with her, but make sure she doesn’t talk about us. She doesn’t talk about the Bangladeshi people,” Yunus said.

It is pertinent to note that Dhaka has been demanding Hasina’s extradition since December last year. However, there has been no development on the matter since then. “Probably they (India) will keep her. If some legal obligation is there that they cannot avoid, then the situation will be different,” he said.

The chief advisor added that those who are behind her hope that she will come back to Bangladesh, “with full glory of returning as a victorious leader”, claiming that “some external forces are supporting her to come back”. Mehdi went on to ask how “last Nov, around 30,000 Hindus in Bangladesh gathered to protest against your govt, claiming there have been thousands of attacks on their community. (US President) Donald Trump called the violence in Bangladesh ‘barbaric. '

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To this, Yunus responded: “One of the specialities about India right now is fake news, a barrage of fake news.” “ This is fake news. You can’t go by this fake news,” he said. When asked to clarify if these reports are exaggerated or if there is no anti-Hindu violence, Yunus said there is “some conflict sometimes, some family problem, land problem and something”. “You happen to be my neighbour. You are a Hindu neighbour. I am a Muslim neighbour. We have a problem with our land demarcation, just like two neighbours. So you said this is Hindu-Muslim. That’s not it,” he said.