NF REPORTER
Bangladesh has cancelled the passports of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 96 others for their alleged involvement in enforced disappearances and killings during the July-August movement that toppled the Awami League government.
“The Passports Department cancelled passports of 22 people involved in enforced disappearances while passports of 75 people, including Hasina, were revoked for their involvement in the July killings,” Chief Adviser’s Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder told a press briefing in Dhaka this evening (January 7).
Azad did not reveal the names of the remaining people whose passports were cancelled.
Hasina, daughter of the country’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, ruled the country with an iron fist for more than 15 years. Her increasingly authoritarian government had grown intolerant of opposing views and went after political rivals.
A student-led mass movement that began as a protest against the discriminatory public sector job quotas ended her reign on August 5. More than 1,500 people are believed to have been killed and over 30,000 injured during the protests.
Hasina fled to India with her sister Sheikh Rehana and has been living there since then.
Dozens of cases have been filed against her as well as her ministers and party leaders over corruption and the killings in July and August. A special court has already ordered her arrest.
Bangladesh’s interim government has sent India a note verbale seeking her extradition. India has declined to comment but Dhaka says it will do all it can to bring her back and put her on trial.
