Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday asked India to extradite former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to put her on trial, The Daily Star reported.
“It is our call to you that you should hand her over to the government of Bangladesh in a legal way,” Mirza Fakhrul told reporters, according to The Daily Star. “The people of this country have given the decision for her trial. Let her face that trial.”
The party led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is the main opponent of Hasina’s Awami League.
Mirza Fakhrul, a former Bangladesh minister and the party’s secretary-general, claimed: “Staying there [in India], she [Hasina] has started various plots to thwart the revolution that happened in Bangladesh.”
India was seemingly not keeping its commitment towards democracy by providing her shelter, PTI quoted him as claiming.
Hasina resigned as the prime minister and fled to India on August 5 amid widespread protests against her government. Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of an interim government on August 8.
At least 560 persons were killed during the violence amid the anti-government protests in Bangladesh in July and August.
The citizens of Bangladesh did not consider her offences minor, Mirza Fakhrul said on Tuesday, adding that they “think her fascist rule has weakened Bangladesh’s independence and hindered the country's progress for the last 15 years”.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal is investigating Hasina on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in connection with the anti-government protests in the country.
Also read: Unemployment, political chasms, economic distress: Bangladesh interim government has its hands full
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