India extends B'desh ex-PM Sheikh Hasina's visa even as Dhaka continues pressing for her extradition

Amid growing calls in Bangladesh for her extradition, India has extended the visa of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been in the country since August last year, sources in know of latest development were quoted as saying on Jan 8.

Hasina, 77, fled to India after stepping down amid nationwide student-led protests. She has been incommunicado since she arrived at Hindon airbase on Aug 5, though it is learnt that she has been moved to a safehouse in Delhi.

The interim government in Dhaka led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus sought her extradition through a note verbale, or unsigned diplomatic correspondence, sent to the external affairs ministry on Dec 23.

The former premier’s visa was recently extended to facilitate her stay in the country, sources were quoted as saying. They dismissed speculation about Hasina being granted asylum in the country by pointing out that India doesn’t have a specific law for dealing with refugees and matters such as asylum.

The move to extend the visa involved the Union home ministry, which has to sign off on such matters, and was done through the local Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), sources said without providing details.

On Jan 7 evening, a Bangladeshi official in Dhaka announced the Department of Immigration and Passports’ decision to cancel the passports of 97 people, including Hasina, for their alleged involvement in enforced disappearances and killings during protests in July.

“The passports department cancelled passports of 22 people involved in enforced disappearances, while passports of 75 people, including Sheikh Hasina, were revoked due to their involvement in the July killings,” Abul Kalam Azad Majumder, a spokesperson for Yunus, told reporters.

The latest developments come at a time when Bangladesh’s International Criminal Tribunal, set up to prosecute persons accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, issued a second arrest warrant for Hasina on Jan 6. The tribunal directed Bangladeshi police officials to arrest Hasina and 11 others and produce them before the panel on Feb 12.

On the same day, the chief of Bangladesh’s National Independent Investigation Commission, Maj Gen (retired) ALM Fazlur Rahman, said members of the panel wished to visit India to “interrogate” Hasina as part of an investigation into the killing of 74 people by the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles in 2009.

These actions are being seen in New Delhi as efforts by some elements in Bangladesh’s interim government to keep up pressure on the Indian side for Hasina’s extradition.

However, the UK government effectively blocked any possible asylum request on the grounds that the country’s Immigration rules do not allow a person to apply for asylum from outside Britain. Some reports have also suggested that Hasina’s US visa has been revoked.

“For the purpose of the investigation, the commission will go to India and interrogate Sheikh Hasina if the [Bangladesh] government gives us permission,” Rahman was quoted as saying by BSS news agency.

These actions are being seen in New Delhi as efforts by some elements in Bangladesh’s interim government to keep up pressure on the Indian side for Hasina’s extradition.

Days after Hasina arrived in India, her US-based son Sajeeb Wazed Joy dismissed reports that her visa had been revoked and that she had sought asylum in India. “No one has revoked her visa. She has not applied for political asylum anywhere. Those are all rumours,” he told ANI news agency on August 9 last year.

The external affairs ministry, which has acknowledged the receipt of Bangladesh’s extradition but declined to comment on the matter, has also said in the past that it is up to Hasina to decide her future plans.

“As far as former prime minister Sheikh Hasina is concerned, we don’t have an update on her plans. It is for her to take things forward,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a media briefing last year.