Dhaka on Monday demanded that India extradite ousted former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina and ex-interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal hours after both were sentenced to death in absentia for their role in last year’s deadly crackdown on student-led protests.
Noting that Hasina, who fled Bangladesh after violent demonstrations unseated her government in August 2024, has been in India since, the foreign ministry in Dhaka said New Delhi was obliged to act under the bilateral extradition treaty.
“Bangladesh government calls on the Indian government to immediately hand over Hasina and former interior minister Kamal,” the ministry said.
Kamal’s whereabouts are not known.
The demand came hours after the 78-year-old Awami League chief issued a fierce rebuttal of the ruling.
India, reacting to the development, said it had “noted” the verdict delivered by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal. In a brief statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said New Delhi remained committed to “the best interests of the people of Bangladesh”, including peace, democracy, inclusion and stability.
India also said it would “continue to engage constructively with all stakeholders”, signalling a cautious, non-committal stance even as Dhaka presses for Hasina’s extradition.
Terming the judgment “biased” and delivered by a “rigged tribunal”, Hasina said the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) that sentenced her for “crimes against humanity” had been constituted by an “unelected government with no democratic mandate”.
The ICT described Hasina as the “mastermind and principal architect” of the crackdown that killed hundreds of protesters during the July–August 2025 unrest. She had earlier been declared a fugitive by the court.
Hasina maintained the charges were politically motivated.
“They reveal the brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government to remove Bangladesh’s last elected prime minister and nullify the Awami League as a political force,” she said in a statement.
The former prime minister said she was willing to face a fair tribunal but accused the ICT of denying her basic legal rights.
“I was given no fair chance to defend myself, nor even to have lawyers of my choice represent me,” she said, urging that any legitimate trial be moved to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Hasina accused the Mohammad Yunus-led interim administration of weaponising the tribunal ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for February, from which the Awami League has been barred.
The verdict, she said, was designed to “scapegoat” her party and divert attention from “the failings of Yunus and his ministers”.
She alleged that Bangladesh under the interim regime had witnessed collapsing public services, rising crime, suppression of women’s rights, targeting of minorities, and an emboldening of Islamist groups such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
“Journalists are locked up, economic growth has stalled, and elections have been delayed and manipulated,” she charged.
Originally set up to try collaborators from the 1971 Liberation War, the ICT was amended last year to bring members of Hasina’s former government, including the former prime minister herself, under its jurisdiction. Hasina has repeatedly described the tribunal as a “kangaroo court”.
“I mourn all deaths on both sides,” she said of last year’s protests, “but neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters.”
(With inputs from PTI and Reuters)