Bangladeshi judges have found former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina guilty of crimes against humanity for the violent repression of anti-government protests in 2024.
India says it ‘noted’ the Sheikh Hasina verdict
The Indian Foreign Ministry released a short statement following the sentencing, saying New Delhi “has noted the verdict announced by the ‘International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh’ concerning former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.”
The ministry went on to stress India’s commitment, as “a close neighbor,” to the best interests of the Bangladeshi people, “including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country.”
“We will always engage constructively with all stakeholders to that end,” it added.
New Delhi’s reaction to the verdict had been widely anticipated, considering that Hasina and former Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal are both currently in India.
The Indian ministry’s statement made no reference to Bangladesh’s request for the immediate extradition of Hasina and Kamal.
Bangladesh calls on India to extradite Hasina, Kamal
The Bangladeshi Foreign Minister has renewed its call to the Indian government to hand over former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal after they were sentenced to death over the deadly crackdown on the 2024 uprising.
Both Hasina and Kamal have refused to return to Bangladesh for the trial, and have consistently rejected the court’s authority.
Dhaka said that New Delhi had an obligation to hand them over, citing an extradition treaty between the two countries.
“We urge the government of India to immediately extradite the two convicts to the Bangladeshi authorities,” the ministry said.
Bangladesh warned that “granting asylum to these convicts… would be extremely unfriendly and an affront to justice.”
Why Sheikh Hasina is in India
We haven’t had an official reaction from the Indian government yet, but the fact that India has allowed Sheikh Hasina to stay in exile for over a year is being seen as a statement in itself.
Even before the trial, the India-Bangladesh relation has been impacted with the new interim government in Dhaka, which has been seeking Hasina’s and the former home minister’s extradition.
India hasn’t responded to that request, despite there being an extradition pact between the two countries.
India has long had deep ties with Bangladesh and with the Hasina family, and this is not the first time that she’s been in exile in the country.
In the 1970s, when her father and other family members were killed in a military coup in Bangladesh, she and her sister were given exile by the then-Indian government, and this is the second time that she’s found exile here.
India also played a huge role in Bangladesh’s independence struggle from Pakistan in 1971, which was led by Sheikh Hasina’s father, Mujibur Rahman, who went on to become the president of the country.
So it’s in this context that India’s position becomes very precarious. And obviously, this is going to have an impact in the future on the relationship between the two countries. And it remains to be seen how India is going to walk that tight rope.
Sheikh Hasina reacts to the verdict from India
Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called the verdict and sentencing in her crimes against humanity trial “biased and politically motivated.”
Hasina refused to return from exile in India to attend the trial in Bangladesh, where she was assigned a state-appointed lawyer.
“The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate,” Hasina said in a five-page statement issued from hiding in India.
Hasina, instead, said she would be willing to attend a fresh trial outside Bangladesh.
“I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly,” she said.
“That is why I have repeatedly challenged the interim government to bring these charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.”
Earlier this month, Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry summoned India’s envoy to Dhaka to demand that New Delhi block the “notorious fugitive” Hasina from talking to journalists and “granting her a platform to spew hatred.”
Convicted minister expects India to resist pressure from Bangladesh
I just spoke on the phone to Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, former home minister of Bangladesh, who has also been given the death sentence by the tribunal.
Kamal, currently in India, said that he believes the tribunal is invalid and unconstitutional, and that he does not care about the verdict.
He noted that the tribunal was established to try individuals who opposed the Mukti Yuddha (Bangladesh Liberation War), arguing that it therefore lacked constitutional authority to conduct such trials.
I asked him what India’s role could be after the verdict — specifically, whether the interim government of Bangladesh could pressure Indian authorities to hand them over to Bangladesh.
Kamal said he did not think India would take the verdict seriously, and he expected that India would not support the current government in Bangladesh and would resist any pressure from it.
In response to a question about the use of lethal weapons, Kamal claimed that the security forces used them to protect themselves. Therefore, according to him, they did not do anything wrong.
Court sentences Sheikh Hasina to death in absentia
The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh’s domestic war crimes court, sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to death for ordering a deadly crackdown on the 2024 student-led uprising.
Judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder said Hasina was “found guilty on three counts,” including incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities.
“We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence — that is, sentence of death,” Mozumder said.
The announcement was met by cheering and clapping in the court.
Sheikh Hasina found guilty
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been found guilty of crimes against humanity.
Bangladesh’s three-member special crimes tribunal gave its verdict in the case against Hasina on Monday afternoon.
The judgement was given in absentia for Hasina, who the court has declared a fugitive.
It was the tribunal’s first verdict on the atrocities committed during the violent repression of mass protests in July and August 2024.
Only one of the three accused is in court
As verdict is delivered against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and two other former government officials charged with crimes against humanity, only one is actually in court.
That’s former police inspector general Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun. He has pleaded guilty and also became a state witness.
Sheikh Hasina fled to India after she was deposed and refused to return for the trial.
Former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has gone into hiding, with rumors that he also fled to India.
Hasina turned Bangladesh into a one-party state
Sheikh Hasina was accused of steadily consolidating power during her 15-year-rule from 2009 to 2024.
Her time is power was marked by increasing political arrests and disappearances, suppression of dissent and the curtailing of freedom of speech.
The January 2024 election won by Hasina and her Awami League was boycotted by Bangladesh’s other main party, the BNP, after thousands of opposition supporters and politicians were been arrested.
Many democracy observers accuse Hasina of effectively turning Bangladesh into a one-party state.
Hasina’s Awami League calls for national shutdown
Hasina’s now-banned party, the Awami League, has called for a nationwide shutdown on Monday.
Both Hasina and the Awami League have called the special tribunal a “kangaroo court” and denounced the appointment of a lawyer by the state to represent her.
The interim government banned the Awami League in May under the anti-terrorism act.
The Electoral Commission has since removed the party from the official list of registered political parties.
This means the Awami League will be unable to run in elections scheduled for February 2026.
Until its ban, the Awami League had been one of Bangladesh’s main parties since independence from Pakistan in 1976.
Reports of explosions in Dhaka
Media reported explosions of crude bombs in Dhaka.
This includes one in front of the house of an adviser, equivalent to a Cabinet minister, on Sunday.
Other crude bombs have been set off across Dhaka, and elsewhere in Bangladesh over the past week.
These are mainly petrol bombs thrown at everything from buildings linked to the government of interim leader Muhammad Yunus to buses and Christian sites.