As cases mount, Bangladesh will decide on seeking Hasina's extradition, adviser says

[August 15, 2024]  By Krishn Kaushik and Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) - As cases rise against her, including murder accusations, Bangladesh will decide whether to ask India to extradite former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who resigned and fled to New Delhi last week, the country's de-facto foreign minister Mohammad Touhid Hossain said on Thursday.

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 said.

"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.

India's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Hasina fled the country for India on Aug. 5 after a violent uprising against her led to nearly 300 people getting killed, including many students. She has been named in two murder cases already, along with senior members of her cabinet.

Ataur Rahman, deputy director of the investigation cell of International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic court, said it had launched a third case - an investigation against ten people, including Hasina, for murder, torture and genocide during the period of the protests.

At least three of Hasina's former ministers and advisers have already been arrested in Bangladesh.

In her only statement since her ouster, Hasina has demanded a probe into the killings and vandalism during the protests. She has not commented on the charges against her.

Hossain, a retired diplomat, is the adviser on foreign affairs in the interim government led by Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus, which was sworn in last week after Hasina's ouster. The council of advisers includes other retired officials, lawyers, student leaders of the protests and some opposition politicians.

ROHINGYA REFUGEES

In his first interview to international media since taking over, Hossain said Yunus is "very unhappy about the way the statements are coming from India, from the former prime minister" and he conveyed this to the Indian envoy in a meeting on Wednesday.

Hossain also asked India, and other countries, to take in more Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, as Bangladesh was not in a position to accept any more.

Hossain said other countries need to put pressure on the Arakan Army rebel group in Myanmar to "ensure this does not happen", referring to attacks on Rohingyas in their native Rakhine state.

Protesters beat a suspected Awami League supporter in front of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 15, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

"The world community has to create a situation that they (the Rohingya) can go back," he said.

The Arakan Army, an ethnic rebel militia in Rakhine state, is fighting the Myanmar junta which overthrew the civil government in 2021. Both sides in the conflict have attacked Rohingya settlements.

Dozens of Rohingyas were killed while fleeing Rakhine this week, the latest episode of violence against the persecuted Muslim minority in Buddhist majority-Myanmar. Over 730,000 of them fled to Bangladesh in 2017 after a military-led crackdown that the U.N. said was carried out with genocidal intent.

"It is a humanitarian issue that involves the entire world, not only Bangladesh. We have done more than our share," Hossain said.

He added that Dhaka wants good ties with everyone, including India, China and the U.S.

Discussing possible elections in Bangladesh, the adviser said that there will be more clarity on the timeline by September.

"Because everyone, all my colleagues in the council of advisers, they are extremely busy with bringing back normalcy" which should be restored by early September, he said.

He said the interim's government priority is to bring "irreversible" reforms, "because our system has been thoroughly corrupted and the institutions have been destroyed and they have to be restored."

Once elections are announced, he said, "we fade away", referring to senior members of the interim government.

"None of us have any political ambitions."

(Reporting by Krishn Kaushik and Ruma Paul in Dhaka. Additional reporting by Maksud Un Nabi; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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