Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh has appealed to India to send back former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina has been living in India since 5 August 2024. The Jamaat has reiterated this demand after the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced him to death.

‘India should give proof of being a good neighbour’- Jamaat
Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar said during a press conference at the party office in Moghbazar, Dhaka that if India considers itself a ‘good neighbour’ and a ‘friendly country’, then its first responsibility is to send Hasina back to Bangladesh. He said, ‘The country which gives shelter to a fugitive death row accused is actually standing on the side of the criminal. We demand that they be returned immediately.

‘The trial was transparent and fair’- Jamaat
Responding to the verdict, Porwar said that there is no scope for raising questions on this case. He claimed that the entire trial was ‘transparent, fair and as per international standards’.

Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death
The downfall of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began with the student-led rebellion in Bangladesh last year and she had to leave the country on August 5, 2024. What followed was a chain of events that ultimately led to his conviction and death sentence in absentia by the International Criminal Tribunal for Bangladesh (ICT-Bangladesh) on Monday.

ICT called Sheikh Hasina the main conspirator
In its verdict after a months-long trial, Bangladesh’s International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) described the 78-year-old Awami League leader as the “mastermind and key facilitator” of the violent crackdown that left hundreds of protesters dead. Hasina has been living in India since fleeing Bangladesh due to massive protests on August 5 last year. Earlier the court had declared him a fugitive.

In her reaction, Hasina said that the decision was given by an ‘unauthorized tribunal, established and presided over by an unelected government, which has no democratic mandate.’