Almost a month after Bangladesh’s incumbent interim government came to power, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus-led administration has said that it will initiate the legal procedure to bring back former prime minister Sheikh Hasina who fled to India last month following violent protests.
“As the main perpetrator has fled the country, we will start the legal procedure to bring her back,” Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Chief Mohammad Tajul Islam told reporters on Sunday as he accused the ex-PM of carrying out “massacres”.
Islam’s statement comes after the country’s de-facto Foreign Minister Mohammad Touhid Hossain said that the country “would have to ask for her return” as she faced “so many cases”.
Hasina fled the country for India on August 5 after a violent uprising against her led to hundreds being killed, including many students. She has been named in two murder cases already, along with senior members of her cabinet.
Multiple of her former ministers and advisers have also been arrested.
“Bangladesh has a criminal extradition treaty with India which was signed in 2013, while Hasina’s government was in power [….] As she has been made the main accused of the massacres in Bangladesh, we will try to legally bring her back to Bangladesh to face trial,” the ICT chief prosecutor said.
