No Response Conveyed To Bangladesh On Sheikh Hasina’s Extradition, Govt Tells Parliament
India has not conveyed any response to the government of Bangladesh on their request to extradite Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her crimes she allegedly committed before she fled to India in August 2023.
The Minister Of State of External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh while replying to a question posed by Kerala CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas. “The Government of Bangladesh has sought the extradition of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for offences allegedly committed before she came to India on 5th August 2024. No response has been conveyed to the Government of Bangladesh,” Singh replied.
More than 800 people died in the student-led demonstrations that culminated in the ouster of Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5, according to the interim authorities who subsequently took power, led by Nobel-laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Students protested against a quota system that allegedly favoured Hasina’s party, the Awami League, but the protests gradually grew into a movement demanding Hasina’s resignation.
The protests demanded widespread reforms to Bangladeshi economy and politics but the protests were hijacked by Islamists and rivals of Awami League who have been subjecting members of Hasina’s party, her sympathisers and Hindus and other minority groups to mob justice since last year.
Bangladesh has sued Hasina and her kin in court, accusing them of graft, mass murder and also demanded her extradition while accusing her of stoking unrest in Dhaka from New Delhi. The Yunus-led government has also accused her of enforced disappearances.
After Hasina’s government collapsed, the interim government has failed to control mob violence and mob justice being meted out to Bangladeshi sympathetic to her and her party. Mob killings in Bangladesh surged after the August revolution, three rights groups said in January.
Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a leading Bangladeshi human rights organisation, said it had recorded at least 128 people killed by mobs in 2024. Of those, 96 took place from August onwards — meaning roughly three-quarters of the killings occurred after Hasina fled the country.
“Lynchings and mob beatings reflect the growing intolerance and radicalism in society,” said senior ASK member Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir. Two other human rights organisations reported similar numbers — around three times more than the average of the previous five years.
The Manabadhikar Songskriti Foundation said it had documented 146 people killed by mobs in 2024, while the Human Rights Support Society recorded 173 deaths.