India to “examine” Bangladesh request to extradite Hasina

New Delhi: After a judicial tribunal in Dhaka pronounced former Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina guilty of committing “crimes against humanity” and sentenced her to death, in absentia, on November 17, the Indian government received a formal request from the Bangladesh interim government seeking extradition of the deposed Prime Minister, under terms of the India – Bangladesh bilateral
extradition treaty, signed in January 2013. New Delhi is examining the request, the second from Dhaka since Sheikh Hasina had to flee from Bangladesh on August 5 last year, and is considering the legal implications of the request.

“Yes, we have received the request and this request is being examined as part of
ongoing judicial and internal legal processes,” India’s Foreign Ministry
spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said, adding India had “noted the verdict.”

India is not in any hurry to act on the matter, not only because Sheikh Hasina
has been an invaluable and long standing friend of India, but also because she
sought and was provided shelter in this country as a friend and a democratically
elected political party head and Prime Minister, not a criminal. Additionally,
there are a variety of legal implications which New Delhi will take into account,
including, primarily, the interim nature of the current Bangladesh government
and whether the constitution of the ICT itself would bear international legal
scrutiny.
Only once the validity of the hurriedly convened judicial process in Dhaka is
established would the Indian government be legally obligated to act. Those
formal legal processes, prior to the actual process of extradition, would provide
Sheikh Hasina a chance to present her defence against the charges, something
she could not do in the just concluded ICT trial in Dhaka in which she and
former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal were charged, tried and
sentenced to death. The third person accused in the case, former Inspector
General of Police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, turned approver and
was given five years in prison.
“We remain committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh,
including peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country, and will
continue to engage constructively in this regard with all stakeholders,” Jaiswal

added, attempting to diplomatically defuse any unpleasant exchanges between
the neighbours especially after the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry, in a post on X,
had said, “If any country gives shelter to these individuals convicted of crimes
against humanity, it will be an extremely unfriendly act and an affront to
justice.”
The decision of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has seen considerable
turmoil inside Bangladesh, with violence erupting between those supporting the
judgement, including the religious fundamentalists and the BNP and those, like
supporters of the Awami League, opposing it, claiming the judgement was
flawed. The judgement will further worsen the difficult law and order situation
prevailing in that country.
It is ironic that the ICT was formed by Sheikh Hasina in March, 2010, shortly
after her electoral victory, to try those accused of committing War Crimes in
1971. The tribunal on November 17 also ordered the confiscation of all
properties belonging to Hasina and Asaduzzaman in favour of the state.
Another aspect of the situation which India will be watching closely is what
happens to the petition that Sheikh Hasina herself filed in October with the
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, in which
she accused the Mohammad Yunus-led interim government of Bangladesh of
having committed crimes against humanity.
Through her lawyer, Steven Powles KC of Doughty Street Chambers, London,
Hasina filed an Article 15 Communication with the Prosecutor of the ICC,
requesting that the Prosecutor initiate an investigation into retaliatory violence
committed against members and office-bearers of the Awami League party and
members of the previous Cabinet and government.
If the ICC initiates an investigation based on the petition, which was filed well
before the verdict of the ICT was delivered, it will bolster Hasina’s defence and
could prove to be an embarrassment for the Yunus government. In the petition
Hasina claimed that the crimes committed by the Interim Government after the
protests in Bangladesh, which resulted in her being forced to flee the country in
August 2024, amount to crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction. The
communication highlights the alleged killing of 400 Awami League leaders and
activists since July 2024, many of them beaten or lynched by violent mobs.
Bangladesh ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC on 23 rd  March 2010 and the
statute entered into force for Bangladesh on 1 st  June 2010.

The Yunus-led government banned the Awami League party on May 10, 2025
and has stated that the political party is not permitted to participate in national
elections which are scheduled to be held in February 2026. The Awami League
and its supporters have opposed the ban, which it claims will lead to a flawed
democratic process.
The ICT verdict, while not entirely unexpected, will further strain the already
difficult nature of bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh since the
political turmoil forced Sheikh Hasina to leave Dhaka last August. For the
people of Bangladesh, the conflict over their internal struggle for identity,
whether primarily Islamist and fundamentalist or whether Bengali and secular
and the idea for which their nation was created, will continue.

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