‘No deadline for Sheikh Hasina’s return’, says Indian high commissioner in Bangladesh | India News
NEW DELHI: The Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh on Saturday said Dhaka’s extradition request for ousted ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was being legally examined, so New Delhi could not state a deadline for her return.“Nobody can give you a timeframe (over Hasina’s return),” High commissioner Dinesh Trivedi remarked during a discussion organised by a Dhaka-based think tank. PTI reported.“Again and again, the government of India has replied to this that there is a process, and the process is legal, and it is well structured,” Trivedi added.Hasina sought asylum in India after a massive anti-establishment agitation led to the collapse of her government in August 2024.Trivedi said New Delhi had no role in Hasina’s extraction. She was escorted by a Bangladeshi military detachment from her residence and brought to India through a Bangladeshi aircraft.“At that point in time, Hasina was still the prime minister of Bangladesh. We had hardly any choice on that”, Trivedi said.Trivedi alleged the situation emerged because of “tragic circumstances” in Bangladesh, adding that such circumstances should never be repeated anywhere in the world.“What was our choice?” Trivedi asked, pointing at the uncertainty of the potential situation, had India denied entry to Hasina’s aircraft.
Strained ties
India-Bangladesh ties severely deteriorated after Hasina sought asylum in Delhi.Hasina was replaced by an interim government led by Mohammad Yunus, which repeatedly called for her extraction from India.During that 18-month interim rule, Hasina was tried in absentia by a special tribunal and sentenced to death; her Awami League party was also disbanded.Following the February 12 elections, Tarique Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) came to power. Its government endorsed the ban on Hasina’s party and repeatedly renewed the demand for her extradition.However, relations never fully recovered despite a new government in Bangladesh.They were strained further when Hasina addressed a virtual press conference from New Delhi on 5 August 2026, the second anniversary of her removal from power. Bangladesh’s foreign ministry had earlier said that the atmosphere for Rahman’s visit had been “vitiated” by Hasina’s virtual press interaction.India has maintained that it had no role in the media event and that it does not endorse anything said at the forum about the Bangladesh government.
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Rahman had declined the invitation to attend the BRICS outreach summit, while a separate bilateral invitation has been on hold since February.Despite the downturn in bilateral relations, Bangladesh’s state minister for foreign affairs, Humaiun Kobir, said after meeting Trivedi on Tuesday that Dhaka was “positive” about progress in discussions on Rahman’s proposed visit to India; PTI reported that no date has been fixed yet.
