Dhaka To Continue Efforts To Extradite Hasina For In-Person Trial, Says Muhammad Yunus’ Office

Last Updated:February 19, 2025, 09:16 IST

A Bangladesh interim government spokesperson cited a United Nations fact-finding report and said Hasina committed crimes against humanity during her tenure

Sheikh Hasina said that Bangladesh has turned into a hub for terrorists in her address to Awami League workers. (IMAGE: REUTERS)

Muhammad Yunus’ Office has said Bangladesh’s interim government will continue efforts to extradite deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina from India Hasina to hold her trial in person.

Chief Adviser Yunus’ press secretary Shafiqul Alam said, “Hasina’s extradition is our government’s top priority. Dhaka would continue its efforts to extradite Hasina to hold her trial in person."

He said it was up to the people and political parties of Bangladesh to decide if her “fascist" Awami League would be able to carry on politics but those allegedly involved in killings, enforced disappearances and other wrongdoings must be brought to justice.

The spokesman said the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) fact-finding report, released last week, revealed that Hasina committed crimes against humanity during her tenure.

“After the report of the UN and some reports of rights groups were published, pressure has been mounted (on India to return Hasina to Bangladesh)," the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) quoted him as saying.

Alam said a survey by an Indian media group showed that 55 per cent Indians wanted her repatriation while a certain per cent want to send her to another country and only 16-17 per cent wanted her stay in India.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Office earlier said they sent a diplomatic note seeking her repatriation and New Delhi acknowledged its receipt without any elaboration Hasina secretly fled the country for India when her nearly 16-year-long Awami League regime was toppled in a student-led mass uprising on August 5, 2024.

She has been accused of a series of charges like commission of crimes against humanity, mass murders and enforced disappearances by the subsequent interim administration along with many of her senior colleagues in the cabinet and party.

Most of these leaders and officials are now in jail to face trial or on the run at home and abroad.

Alam’s comments came a day after Hasina accused Yunus of turning Bangladesh into a “terrorist" hub, exposing it to a state of lawlessness in a virtual conversation with some of the widows and children of policemen killed during last year’s unrest.

Hasina’s second virtual address

In her second virtual address since being ousted on August 5, Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina vowed to return and avenge the deaths of Awami League cadres and some police officers, calling them ‘martyrs’ of political violence. Hasina has been living in political exile for the past seven months.

Speaking from an undisclosed location, the former Bangladesh Prime Minister connected with five widows and their children through a Zoom link, in a session moderated by Nazrul Islam, president of the Awami League (Europe chapter). The address continued for almost 45 minutes, as the YouTube live was watched by around 7000 to 8000 people from various locations.

News world Dhaka To Continue Efforts To Extradite Hasina For In-Person Trial, Says Muhammad Yunus’ Office