Bangladesh asks India to return ousted leader Sheikh Hasina

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Bangladesh’s interim government has asked India to return exiled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to face legal proceedings, a request likely to heighten tensions between Dhaka and New Delhi.

A Bangladeshi domestic criminal tribunal in October issued arrest warrants against Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India after being toppled by student-led protests in August, and more than 40 others.

A spokesperson for Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said it sent a diplomatic note to India’s government on Monday requesting the return of Sheikh Hasina, who remains in New Delhi, so she could face a “judicial process”.

The Bangladeshi tribunal accused the authoritarian former prime minister of orchestrating massacres and “crimes against humanity” during the protests that lead to her ousting, in which hundreds of people are thought to have died. Sheikh Hasina has denied the allegations.

The diplomatic request will fuel tensions between New Delhi and Dhaka just weeks after India’s foreign secretary visited Bangladesh to try to mend relations between the two neighbours.

A spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry confirmed it had received a “note verbale from the Bangladesh High Commission today in connection with an extradition request”, but declined to comment further.

Sheikh Hasina’s dramatic toppling roused suspicion and concern in New Delhi, which has historically supported her Awami League, Bangladesh’s oldest and biggest political party.

Rivals and rights groups have accused the Awami League of extrajudicial killings, bending state institutions to its whim and rigging elections. Many Indian officials believe the installation of Bangladesh’s caretaker leader, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, was the result of a US-backed regime change.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also raised concerns about the safety of minority Hindus in its Muslim-majority neighbour. Yunus has acknowledged limited incidents of violence against Hindus, though human rights groups have not confirmed any mass atrocities.

Yunus told the Financial Times in October his government would not ask for Sheikh Hasina’s extradition from its dominant south Asian neighbour until a verdict had been reached by the investigative tribunal, which last week extended the deadline for its probe into February.

But last month, Yunus called for her return following the arrest of dozens of former Bangladesh government officials and regime associates. In an address he said: “We will seek the extradition of the ousted autocrat from India.”

While Sheikh Hasina has not been seen in public since she left Bangladesh, she made a broadcast address earlier this month accusing Yunus, with whom she has long feuded, of being the “mastermind” behind the violence and her removal. The Awami League also claims his interim government has “weaponised” the country’s institutions against them.

Sheikh Hasina denied she had ordered security forces to use lethal force against protesters and claimed the allegations against her were “false propaganda” and part of a “conspiracy against us to push us out of power”.

Her son Sajeeb Wazed, who has also previously denied any wrongdoing by his mother, did not respond to a request for comment.

A high court in Bangladesh earlier this month also ordered an investigation against Sheikh Hasina and her niece Tulip Siddiq, a UK Treasury minister, after their family was accused of embezzling $5bn. A UK government spokesperson has said Siddiq denies “any involvement in the allegations”.