People won’t have peace until Hasina brought back, tried
Bangladesh's ousted premier Sheikh Hasina should "keep quiet" while exiled in India until she is brought home for trial, Chief Adviser of Bangladesh's interim government Prof Muhammad Yunus told Indian media.
In an interview with Press Trust of India, conducted last Sunday at the chief adviser's official residence in Dhaka and released yesterday, Yunus made a strong case for Sheikh Hasina's return from India to face trial for atrocities she committed in Bangladesh.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Hasina, 76, fled to India by helicopter one month ago as protesters marched on her palace in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted rule of 15 years.
An interim government led by Nobel laureate Yunus has been under public pressure to demand her extradition and trial over the hundreds of demonstrators killed during the weeks of unrest that ultimately toppled her.
"She has to be brought back, or the people of Bangladesh won't be at peace. The kind of atrocities she has committed must be addressed through a trial here," Yunus said.
He criticised Hasina's political remarks from India, calling them an "unfriendly gesture" that causes discomfort in both countries.
"If India wants to keep her until the time Bangladesh wants her back, the condition would be that she has to keep quiet," Yunus, 84, told the Press Trust of India news agency.
"No one is comfortable with her stance there in India because we want her back to try her. She is there in India and at times she is talking, which is problematic. Had she been quiet, we would have forgotten it; people would have also forgotten it as she would have been in her own world. But sitting in India, she is speaking and giving instructions. No one likes it," he said.
Hasina has remained in India, her former government's biggest patron and benefactor, since her August 5 overthrow, inflaming tensions between the two South Asian neighbours.
She made a public statement the week after her arrival calling for Bangladeshis to gather in Dhaka to mark the 1975 assassination of her father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
"It is not good for us or for India. There is discomfort regarding it," he said.
Hasina's comments were seen as a provocative effort to galvanise members of her Awami League party and undermine law and order in the fragile first days after Yunus took office.
Asked whether Bangladesh has communicated its stance to India, Yunus said it has been conveyed verbally and quite firmly that she should keep quiet.
"It is not that she has gone there on a normal course. She has fled following a people's uprising and public anger," he said.
Yunus said that while Bangladesh values strong ties with India, New Delhi must move "beyond the narrative that portrays every other political party except Awami League as Islamist and that the country will turn into Afghanistan without Sheikh Hasina."
Referring to the recent incidents of attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and India flagging concerns about it, Yunus said this is just an "excuse"
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"The issue of trying to portray the conditions of minorities in such a big way is just an excuse," he said.
Asked about ways to improve the India-Bangla relations, Yunus said both the countries need to work together and it is on a downhill presently. "We need to work together to improve this relationship, which is now at a low," he said.
Speaking about the future of bilateral treaties with India, Yunus said there are demands for a relook at certain treaties such as transit and the Adani power deal.
"Everybody is saying that it is needed. We will see what is on paper and, second, what is actually happening on the ground. I can't answer it specifically. If there is any need to review, we will then raise questions about it," he said.
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