Mohammad Touhid Hossain, Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister, stated on Thursday that the nation will choose whether to request that India extradite former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Amidst widespread demonstrations over a job quota bill last week, Hasina had resigned and left the country for India. It has been alleged that she is looking for garbage abroad.
Hossain said in an interview he did not want to speculate, but noted that Hasina was facing “so many cases”. If the country’s home and law ministries decided, “we have to ask for her…return to Bangladesh”, he was quoted by news agency Reuters as saying.
“That creates an embarrassing situation for the Indian government,” he said, adding India “knows this and I am sure they will take care of it”. He did not elaborate.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by India’s minister of external affairs.
On August 5, Hasina left the nation for India following a violent rebellion against her that claimed the lives of almost 300 people, many of them students.
Along with top members of her government, the former prime minister of Bangladesh has allegedly already been named in two murder cases.
The investigation cell of the local International Crimes Tribunal, led by deputy director Ataur Rahman, announced the opening of a third case on the charges of murder, torture, and genocide against ten individuals, including Hasina, during the protest period.
In Bangladesh, at least three of Hasina’s former advisors and ministers have already been taken into custody.
In her first public remark since leaving the nation, Hasina on Tuesday made a clear plea for justice in response to the ouster. “I demand punishment for those responsible for the killings and sabotage, through investigation,” the ousted politician said.
Retired diplomat Hossain is the foreign affairs advisor to Yunus, the Nobel laureate, who led the transitional administration sworn in last week following Hasina’s overthrow. Other retired officials, attorneys, protest organisers who are students, and a few opposition politicians make up the council of advisers.
