Bangladesh taking steps to extradite former PM Hasina from India

International Crimes Tribunal says it will start the process to bring expelled leader back to answer for ‘massacres’.

Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) says it is taking steps to secure the extradition of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina from neighbouring India.

The chief prosecutor of the body said on Sunday that the legal process to bring Hasina back to Bangladesh, to face trial for the deadly violence waged by the authorities before she was unseated by mass protests in August, has started.

Following weeks of protests and a vicious crackdown by authorities, Hasina fled by a military helicopter on August 5 and landed at an airbase near New Delhi seeking refuge. Her presence in India has affected relations between Dhaka and New Delhi, and a diplomatic dispute is possible as Bangladesh moves to bring her back to face trial.

Mohammad Tajul Islam, the ICT’s chief prosecutor, said Hasina, accused of ruling the country with an iron fist during her 15-year reign, is being sought for her role in overseeing “massacres” during the uprising.

“As the main perpetrator has fled the country, we will start the legal procedure to bring her back,” he told reporters.

“Bangladesh has a criminal extradition treaty with India which was signed in 2013, while Sheikh Hasina’s government was in power,” Islam added.

“As she has been made the main accused of the massacres in Bangladesh, we will try to legally bring her back to Bangladesh to face trial.”

The ICT was set up by Hasina in 2010 to investigate atrocities during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of her political opponents, Hasina’s government was brought down as weeks