Dhaka: Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Advisor, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, stated that the government would consider asking India to repatriate former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who resigned and fled to New Delhi last week, as charges against her mount, including accusations of murder.
In an interview on Thursday, Hossain said he did not want to speculate but noted that Hasina was facing “so many cases,” The Daily Star reported.
If the country’s Home and Law Ministries decide, “we have to ask for her… return to Bangladesh,” he added.
“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.
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India’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
On August 5, Hasina left her country for India following a violent rebellion against her that claimed the lives of almost 300 people, many of them students. According to The Daily Star, she and top members of her Cabinet have already been identified in two murder investigations.
In his first interview with 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.
He continued that Dhaka wants positive relations with all countries, including China, India, and the US.
Ataur Rahman, deputy director of the investigation cell of the International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic court, said it had launched a third case — an investigation against 10 people, including Hasina, for murder, torture and genocide during the period of the protests.
In Bangladesh, at least three of Hasina’s former advisors and ministers have already been taken into custody.
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 Muhammad Yunus, who 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 leaders.
Speaking about prospective elections in Bangladesh, the advisor stated that details will become more apparent 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 government’s priority is to implement “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 interim government members.
He said, “None of us have any political ambition.”
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–IANS
