B'desh requests India to extradite ex-PM Hasina

Rocky ties: Rising India-B'desh tensions

- HT Correspondent

Bangladesh made a formal request to India on Monday to extradite former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in the country since she fled Dhaka in August, with the move expected to exacerbate the strained relations between the two sides.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed that India had "received a note verbale from the Bangladesh high commission today in connection with an extradition request". He added, "At this time, we have no comment to offer on this matter."

Jaiswal's response came several hours after Bangladesh's de facto foreign minister Touhid Hossain told media in Dhaka about the request to extradite Hasina, who stepped down in the face of widespread protests led by student groups and fled to India on August 5. "We have informed [India] that she [Hasina] is wanted back here for the judicial process," Hossain told reporters. Hossain, who spoke in Bengali, added: "We have done this through a note verbale."

Soon after, the Bangladeshi mission in New Delhi delivered the note verbale, or unsigned diplomatic correspondence, to the external affairs ministry.