Khaleda Zia's party stages sit-in and demands arrest and trial of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – Firstpost

The party of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia staged sit-ins across the country on Thursday, demanding the arrest and trial of ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who resigned on August 5 and left the country after massive protests against her government.

Activists and workers of the Dhaka Metropolitan unit of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) gathered at the south gate of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, in front of the offices of Hasina's Awami League party and at the central Shaheed Minar to press for their demands.

In an interview on Thursday, de facto foreign minister Mohammad Touhid Hossain said Bangladesh was considering asking India to extradite former prime minister Sheikh Hasina as the number of cases pending against her, including murder charges, continued to mount.

Hossain also said he did not want to speculate, but Hasina is currently facing “numerous cases.” If the country's interior ministry and law ministry decide, Bangladesh may have to request her “return to Bangladesh,” he said.

On August 8, an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in, along with 16 advisers to run the government. Over 230 people died in Bangladesh in the violence that erupted across the country following the overthrow of the Hasina government on August 5. The death toll rose to 560 during the three weeks of violence.

The interim government has already launched an investigation against Hasina and nine other people. They are accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. The allegations relate to the incidents from July 15 to August 5 during the mass protests by students against their government.

Activists and workers of the Dhaka Metropolitan unit of the BNP and its affiliates are staging sit-ins in front of the south gate of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, the Awami League offices and the central Shaheed Minar to demand that “autocrat” Hasina and her “accomplices” be brought to justice for the loss of lives in the recent violence.

Several hundred BNP activists also gathered outside the BNP headquarters in Naya Paltan. Rafiqul Islam Majnu, chairman of BNP Dhaka City South, led the protests in Baitul Mukarram on Thursday.

“We have announced a programme for today. The BNP and its affiliates are participating in the programme in Dhaka and across the country. We have one demand – the arrest and trial of the fascist autocrat Sheikh Hasina and her accomplices. They have committed a brutal genocide in Bangladesh.” Over a hundred activists and leaders of the Savar Jubo Dal gathered outside the destroyed offices of the Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue. They chanted slogans and demanded that Hasina be brought to justice.

The BNP's Dhaka Metropolitan Unit and the Jubo Dal – the youth wing of the BNP – also held demonstrations in Malibagh, Mouchak, Shahjahanpur and Kaptan Bazar. The BNP's protest came on the 49th anniversary of the assassination of the country's founder and deposed Prime Minister Hasina's father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Several students and common people were seen attacking and obstructing people who were apparently going there to pay their last respects near Mujibur Rahman's residence in Dhanmondi-32 this morning.

A United Nations team will reportedly travel to Bangladesh to investigate “atrocities” committed during the unrest that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last week, the country's interim government said on Thursday.

Bangladesh's International Criminal Court announced today that it had opened an investigation into former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and nine others on suspicion of genocide and crimes against humanity committed between July 15 and August 5 during mass student-led protests against her government.

Meanwhile, a court in Dhaka on Thursday ordered police to submit an investigation report by September 15 in the case against Sheikh Hasina and six others in connection with the death of grocer Abu Saeed, who was killed by police firing during quota protests in Mohammadpur on July 19.

After Hasina's resignation, an interim government was formed under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. Its commitment was to implement administrative and political reforms and ensure that those responsible for the violence were held accountable.

With inputs from agencies.