Bangladeshi student leader who led the protest wants Sheikh Hasina to face trial

Dhaka:

A Bangladeshi student leader who played a key role in the overthrow of Sheikh Hasina and who is now part of an interim government has said she will face trial when she returns home as planned over murders that occurred during her time in office, including during the recent protests, which led her to resign and flee on Monday.

Around 300 people, many of them university students, were killed in demonstrations that began in July, with students demonstrating against quotas in public jobs, before turning into violent protests to oust Hasina, who has ruled Bangladesh for 20 of the last 30 years.

Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said he will return to Bangladesh from India, where he is sheltering, as soon as elections are announced in his home country, which the main opposition has demanded be held within three months.

“I’m curious to know why she fled the country,” student leader Nahid Islam, who is actually a minister in the interim government, told Reuters on Friday night in his first interview since joining the government on Thursday. fair as a counselor.

“We will seek justice for all the murders that took place under your command, this has been one of the main demands of our revolution. Even if she doesn’t come back, we will work on it.”

“We want to arrest her – whether it works through the regular judicial system or a special court on this or not, we are discussing how to proceed in this matter,” said Islam, 26, who now heads the postal, telecommunications and information department . technology ministries.

Joy, who lives in the United States, did not respond to a request for comment. Hasina, who is under the protection of the Indian government, could not be contacted.

Another student leader, Abu Baker Mojumder, separately told Reuters they want Hasina to return and face trial.

Islam said one of the interim government’s main priorities was to hold free and fair elections, after the last elections were boycotted by the opposition, and also to investigate suspected corruption in the previous government.

Islam said Bangladesh would need electoral and constitutional reforms before any election, so it was unclear when the next vote would be held. He declined to provide a specific timeline.

“My ambition of what I will be next depends on the people of Bangladesh,” he said, when asked if he would like to be prime minister one day.

He said India fostered a relationship with Hasina’s Awami League party but not with the people of Bangladesh as a whole.

“We want friendly ties with India,” he said. “India also needs to look at its foreign policy, otherwise it will become a problem for the entire South Asia.”

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)