ISLAMABAD, NOV 21: Pakistan on Friday said that the recent death sentence for former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina was an “internal matter” for the country and that its people were fully capable of solving their own issues.
A Bangladesh court had sentenced Hasina to death on Monday, concluding a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.
The ruling came months ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be held in early February.
Addressing his weekly press briefing today, Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said several queries were received regarding the development, on which he said: “This is an internal matter of Bangladesh. The people of Bangladesh are fully capable of addressing their issues in accordance with their own democratic and constitutional processes.” Hasina was found guilty of ordering lethal force by a tribunal in the capital Dhaka, 15 months after resigning and fleeing to India in the face of a student-led uprising that killed hundreds or more. The verdict by the International Crimes Tribunal — a court that Hasina set up to try war crimes from Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan — marked a dramatic turn for a political career that began when she avoided death during the 1975 coup because she happened to be in Europe.
After the sentence was handed down, the Bangladesh government had told India that failure to return her would be a highly unfriendly gesture and an affront to justice.
“Under the existing extradition treaty between the two nations, this is a binding obligation for India,” Bangladesh’s foreign ministry had said in a statement.
But all previous efforts so far to persuade New Delhi to send her back have faltered.
New Delhi said it was committed to “the best interests of the people of Bangladesh, including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country. We will always engage constructively with all stakeholders to that end”.
