Extradition Of Sheikh Hasina To Bangladesh Is Not Likely

While two or three murder, abduction, torture, genocide etc. charges against Sheikh Hasina have sprouted since well after her ouster from power and safe passage to India, they hardly qualify as legal challenges. They do not, as they stand, hold up under universal ‘burden of proof’ criteria. Or in terms of the much more pedestrian extradition treaty of 2013, between India and Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina was deposed nearly a fortnight ago, on August 5th.

Sheikh Hasina was air-lifted to India, first to Assam, and then to near New Delhi, along with her family, in Bangladesh military air transports. She was accompanied by an escort of Bangladesh military personnel, and set flight after permission was obtained via the Indian ambassador to Dhaka and India’s external affairs ministry. The Bangladeshi military personnel along with their aeroplane left the Hindon Airbase near the capital, after a day, leaving Sheikh Hasina and her family behind in India.  

The nature of Sheikh Hasina’s departure from Bangladesh in a bloodless coup engineered by the Bangladesh military, suggests, as in other such circumstances, immunity from subsequent prosecution, probably in return for her immediate resignation.

Sheikh Hasina was the elected head of the Bangladesh government, whereas the current government is nominated by the military. Her present refuge in India is based on a long history of good relations with India. However, she is here temporarily, and has not sought either asylum or political refugee status.

Meanwhile, India is bracing for the possibility of a large influx of Bangladeshi Hindu refugees and other people from her Awami League Party that are facing hostility in Bangladesh. India is maintaining a vigil on the border and working with the current Bangladeshi government to stabilise the situation.

India is already host to crores of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants that have arrived over the years. They have not been pushed back in the interest of good neighbourly relations with Sheikh Hasina’s government. These include the dangerous and disruptive Rohingyas, originally from Myanmar. However, India’s attitude to harbouring all these Bangladeshi illegals could change, based on the behaviour and manifest attitude of the new government.

The murder and other charges against Sheikh Hasina were posted since her departure, mostly by affected citizens. All of them happened after she left the country, and could be interpreted as an afterthought. The Bangladeshi courts themselves are yet to admit any of these cases, let alone consider them.

The erstwhile Chief Justice of Bangladesh was also ousted and replaced through the action of a revolutionary mob. The current judiciary will be struggling to maintain its autonomy in the presently charged atmosphere.

The 2013 extradition treaty with Bangladesh was hardly designed to extradite former heads of state. It was a construct put together to apprehend mostly convicted criminals from India or Bangladesh who might have run away across the border.  How often it has been used is another question, given the many illegals found in all parts of India including the national capital. These illegals work as domestic helpers, construction workers, and at other humble jobs. Unfortunately, they also contribute to a fifth column, from those that are radicalised, to the criminal, flesh and drug trading cohorts, and the terrorist/rioting element. They have been caught more than once engaged in such practices.  

A reported three hundred people were killed in the recent unrest leading up to Sheikh Hasina’s resignation. This was hurriedly forced upon her by the Chief of the Bangladesh Army in person. However, these casualty numbers include a number of police and other security personnel, ordinary citizens, students, party officials and workers from the Awami League and BNP, people on both sides of the conflict. There was also extensive arson, illegal destruction of government property and monuments, private property, mob-lynchings, before and after the fall of the Awami League government.

Post the ouster, there was wilful slaughter of Awami League personnel, of minorities, particularly Hindus who were said to be backing the Awami League, rape and other atrocities. All this was largely unchecked by the Bangladesh security forces. These constitute human rights violations on the grand scale. The same sort of thing that the new mob accuses Sheikh Hasina and her people of.

However, one of the cases filed relates to an alleged abduction way back in 2015.None of them involve Sheikh Hasina personally, though the deaths and other actions have been attributed to her.

The interim government, cobbled together after Sheikh Hasina’s departure, is unelected, inexperienced, and no deadline has been announced for fresh elections. Some reports indicate that this unelected government may continue for a prolonged period.

The head of the advisory government is the 83 year-old Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Laureate for his work with the Grameen Bank, a micro-lending institution. Yunus has come back from exile in Paris as he was not in favour with the Hasina government. He also faced a number of corruption charges.  

Does this largely advisory and de facto government, headed by Yunus and propped up by the Bangladesh Army, have the legitimate authority to conduct the affairs of state, let alone seek Sheikh Hasina’s extradition?

The de facto foreign minister Mohammed Touhid Hossain said on August 15^th, 2024 said his government will soon decide on the demand for Sheikh Hasina’s extradition based on inputs from its home and law ministers.

The students, central to the quota stir, have already announced they will be forming a political party of their own, to get away from the bipolarity of the Awami League and the Islamist backed BNP. So, this implies elections will be held eventually, or at least the students think so.

Hindus still constitute about 8% of Bangladesh’s 170 million population, down from nearly 20% at Partition in 1947. Their decline in numbers has been called a ‘drip-drip genocide’ by a commentator. Muhammad Yunus has assured India and the community of their safety. But more time must go by, amidst reports of blackmail and demands for extortion money to ensure their self-same safety.

The Bangladesh economy which was doing well under Sheikh Hasina must be stabilised by the new government. The challenge is to not descend in chaos in the name of religious fundamentalism, or fall under the sway of foreign entities keen on dominating in Bangladesh. It is important for Bangladesh to maintain cordial relations with nuclear weaponised India next door for the sake of its very economy and security. It would be well advised not to do anything provocative vis a vis India at the instigation of foreign agencies.

Demanding the extradition of Sheikh Hasina will not be acceded to by India. It is shortly, perhaps as early as the end of this fiscal, to become the 3^rd largest major economy in the world. India won’t buckle to Bangladeshi pressure. Souring of relations with India may be music to Chinese and Pakistani ears, but is not in the best interests of Bangladesh itself.

(1,145 words)

August 17^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee