Bangladesh’s interim government said it will request the Interpol to bring back former prime minister Sheikh Hasina from India to face trial for “crime against humanity”.
The interim government’s law advisor Asif Nazrul said the government would request the France-based organisation to issue a “red notice” alert for Ms Hasina and her loyalists.
“Those responsible for the indiscriminate killings during the mass uprising in July and August will be brought back from wherever they have taken refuge”, Mr Nazrul, the interim government’s law advisor, told reporters on Sunday.
“We will ensure they are arrested and brought to justice”.
In October, a court in Bangladesh issued arrest warrants against Ms Hasina and dozens of her close aides who have been accused of involvement in the “killing and genocide” of protesters during a student-led uprising in July.
The student protests began with calls to end a controversial quota system for government jobs, and swelled into general calls for Ms Hasina to resign as more than 600 protesters were killed in the brutal crackdown by forces led by the then prime minister.
The outrage forced Mr Hasina to flee to India on a military plane after handing her resignation to the president as angry protesters stormed her Dhaka residence, marking an end to her 15-year-long rule on the country.
An Interpol red notice requests the location and provisional arrest of a person wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence. While it’s not an international arrest warrant, it acts as an alert sent to Interpol member countries that a particular person is wanted by the judicial authorities of a specific country.
India has remained a member of Interpol since 1949.
An Interpol notice for the repatriation of Ms Hasina from India would place the country in a diplomatically sensitive position given New Delhi’s close ties with Bangladesh during her government.
Ms Hasina cultivated deep ties with India, as she oversaw an economic boom and drew the two countries closer on business, energy and defence. Bangladesh is India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia, with bilateral trade of just under $16bn.
