BANGLADESH DEMOCRACY CAN’T BE REBUILT WITH VENDETTA POLITICS

THE death sentence handed to former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina may carry the weight of legal procedure, but it also carries the unmistakable smell of political vendetta. The interim government led by Mohammed Yunus termed the verdict “historic” and “profound”, while urging calm. Yet the very insistence on restraint amid an uneasy political clime reveals the depth of the fault lines running through Bangladesh.

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Hasina was found guilty on three counts—incitement, ordering killings, and failing to prevent atrocities during last year’s student-led uprising. The tribunal delivered the stark punishment of the death sentence on two counts and imprisonment until natural death on the third. For a country traumatised by 2024’s turmoil, such choices are incendiary. After the uprising and subsequent crackdown, UN human-rights investigators estimated about 1,400 deaths, documenting several cases of pointblank shootings, deliberate maiming, and arbitrary arrest. Audio recordings verified independently also painted a grim picture of the state’s excesses.