2 Months On, Former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina Still In India

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who came to India in early August, is still in the country, the foreign ministry said today after a court in Bangladesh ordered her arrest. 

“On the stay of the former Prime Minister I had earlier mentioned that she had come here at a short notice and she continues to be here,” a spokesperson said.

Sheikh Hasina had arrived in India on August 5, as an uprising led by students against her turned violent. 

The government had not mentioned how long she would stay and there was much speculation about her final destination. A number of names have come up, including US, UK and even Finland.

“At very short notice, she requested approval to come for the moment to India. We simultaneously received a request for flight clearance from the Bangladesh authorities. She arrived yesterday evening in Delhi,” foreign minister S Jaishankar said a day after she landed at  the Hindon airport, near Delhi.  

Her son Sajeeb Wazed, who is based in Washington, had said the 76-year-old was contemplating retirement and is likely to divide her time between her family members.

Asked about multiple reports about UK’s “silence” her request for asylum and revocation of her visa by the US, he had said that she has not requested asylum “anywhere”.

Today, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal issued arrest warrants against the former Prime Minister and 45 others — including her party Awami League’s top leaders — for alleged crimes against humanity.

The warrants came on the first day of the judicial proceedings started by the re-constituted tribunal, Dhaka Tribune newspaper said.

So far more than 60 complaints of enforced disappearance, murder and mass killings have been filed at the ICT against Hasina, other leaders of her Awami League party and the 14-party alliance, journalists and former top officials of law enforcement agencies.