Bangladesh plans Sheikh Hasina's extradition to put her on trial for 'mass killings' | India News


NEW DELHI: The newly formed interim government in Bangladesh will be ramping up its effort to bring back ousted ex-PM Sheikh Hasina, who has taken refuge in India after a mass uprising that forced her to flee Dhaka on August 5.
Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, under the extradition treaty with India, plans to bring Hasina back “to try her for mass killings during the student-led protests in July and August”.
Md Tajul Islam, the newly-appointed chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), has said that Dhaka will file an application with ICT to issue an arrest warrant against Hasina.
“We will file an application with the International Crimes Tribunal, when it resumes functions, to issue arrest warrants against all the absconding accused including Sheikh Hasina in connection with the cases filed for mass killing and crimes against humanity,” Tajul Islam was quoted as saying by PTI at a press briefing on the ICT premises in Dhaka.
He further said: “Information, documents and evidence against the accused persons will have to be collected from across the country and those will have to be compiled, examined and placed properly before the tribunal, which is very much challenging and huge task.”
According to Nurjahan Begum, the health adviser of the interim government, the protests against the Hasina-led government resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 individuals and left hundreds wounded.
Last month, Bangladesh’s ICT began a probe against Hasina and nine other individuals on allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity that occurred between July 15 and August 5, during the mass movement led by students.
Earlier, Yunus’s foreign affairs adviser Md Touhid Hossain had said the interim government will do whatever it takes to get deposed PM Sheikh Hasina back home to face justice.
“If our legal system wants, we will definitely try to bring her back. There is an agreement (with India) and legal processes. It is better not to speculate,” he had told reporters.

Source link

By jaghit