Bangladesh asks Interpol for help in arresting ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks during a press conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Jan. 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)

DHAKA, Bangladesh, November 12, 2024 (AP) — A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Tuesday asked the international police organization Interpol to issue a red notice for the arrest of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in connection with the deaths of hundreds of protesters during a mass uprising against her.

Hasina fled to India on Aug. 5 with her close aides and former ministers, ending a 15-year rule.

Nobel Peace laurate Muhammad Yunus took over as the interim leader of the South Asian nation on Aug. 8, and later reconstituted the tribunal that once handled charges of crimes against humanity during the country’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.

B.M. Sultan Mahmud, a prosecutor at the tribunal, told The Associated Press that they wrote to Interpol through the police chief seeking assistance from the France-based organization in the arrest of Hasina and others.

The Yunus-led government has promised to try Hasina and said that it would seek her extradition from India.