Why ex-Bangladesh PM Hasina may return from India to face a death sentence | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast. I'm. Pete Ross and I'm joined by our South. Asia specialist Ambasun Ettirajan. On. this edition, we're going to be. discussing the exiled former Prime. Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, who's vowed to return to her home. country despite facing the death. penalty. Ambasun, thanks for joining us. What exactly has she been saying? >> It's the second anniversary of what. happened in Bangladesh, the mass. uprising that forced the Prime Minister, then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to. flee the country. And she held a press.

conference in Delhi talking virtually, only audio, explaining what happened. during that time and also her future. plans. Basically, what she says is she. wants to go back to her country. Currently, she is in exile in Delhi in. India. But, you know, despite all the. accusations by various human rights. groups and also her conviction by a. Bangladeshi tribunal, she didn't show. any remorse or. regretted for the loss of lives during.

those protests. Bangladeshi court convicted her for. crimes against humanity for trying to. suppress these student-led protests 2. years ago and she was awarded the death. sentence. And she was talking about, you. know, she was. facing this threat of being jailed or. even facing the death sentence, but she. was not afraid to go back because this. is where she had to go and work with the. millions of people. >> Let's go back 2 years ago to June 2024.

when those student uprisings first broke. out. What exactly triggered them and. what happened over the over the coming. weeks? >> Sheikh Hasina, the president of the. Awami League party, she was in power. from 2009 until 2024 when the protests. against her started. And even though. there were infrastructure development. and industrial growth, there were. widespread allegations of suppression of. dissent and human rights abuses and also. about worsening economic conditions.

Actually, the students started this. movement as an anti-quota movement, anti-reservation in civil service jobs, but later on that spread to other parts. of the country. People from other walks. of life like opposition parties, Islamist civil society groups, they all. joined this mass uprising that went on. for weeks. And hundreds of people during. her reign were accused of forcibly. disappeared by security forces, which at.

that time the government uh denied. The. UN also said it had documented hundreds. of killings even during the uprising. It. It talked about a figure of up to 1,400. And then this because of this violent. uprising, she fled to neighboring India. You know, she always had a very good. relations with India. She was seen by. many people in Bangladesh as pro- India. An interim government led by Professor. Muhammad Yunus uh took over. They were.

in power for about a year and a half. where uh during that period, you know, they had uh established various. committees to look into the. constitutional reforms, to stabilize uh. the economy, but there were also. accusations of uh mismanagement and also. targeting supporters of the Awami. League. The activities of the Awami. League were banned at that time. And. then late last year uh a Bangladeshi. crimes tribunal uh found Sheikh Hasina. uh found guilty of crimes against. humanity for the killings during the.

mass uprising and also for failing to. stop. All these allegations denied by. Ms. Hasina and her party colleagues. >> Do we have any sense today or did she. give us. more insight into why she's returning? I. mean, as you said, she's facing the. death penalty. So So why would she go. back and take that risk? >> She had spent about 2 years uh living in. India. In the meantime, many of our. party colleagues were facing arrests and. uh some according to their own party. were killed in extrajudicial killings.

denied by the government. And a new. government has taken over after. elections in February this year. That. was a Bangladesh Nationalist Party uh. led by Tarique Rahman, the son of former. Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. Currently, the Awami League remains. banned within Bangladesh. In fact, the. government also warned various the media. houses within the country not to. broadcast uh Miss Hasina's comments uh. because, you know, the because of the. court order, she was convicted by a. court. And now, she wants to go back.

according to uh one of the prominent. analysts like David Bergman who lives in. Bangladesh, it is basically she would. lose her relevance in Bangladesh if she. continues to stay in Delhi. If she wants. to make any impact in Bangladesh. politics, whether she's going to go to. prison or if she's going to face the. death sentence, it should she should be. returning to the country to see how her. party can be revived. Of course, there. is a huge risk that she may be jailed.

straight away. And like she can appeal. against this verdict, we don't know how. long this appeal process will take. And also, there are within the party. also, there are some murmurs because. many of the low-level party coders are. suffering, according to them, because. the. some of the Islamist groups and the. police are going after them. And there. is no one to organize, no one to give. them any support at this point. You. know, she wants to go back and then to. see whether the party mechanism can be.

revived or political fortunes can be. revived. And that was one of the reasons. why many people say that she's going to. go back to Bangladesh. >> And what's the reaction likely to be if. she does return? Does she have a lot of. support there still? >> There are concerns that if once she. returns, that can galvanize as her. supporters. And that could also lead to. political instability because there are. other groups which are really angry with. her. For example, the student party and.

the student leaders, they still want. answers. There were hundreds of people. were killed during that uprising. So, they want answer. They want closure. They want to see Miss Hasina to be. punished. And at the same time, several. Islamist parties they also took part in. these protests and they said many of. their supporters were killed. So, there. was a widespread anger within Bangladesh. at that time. So, if she's going to come. back, there are going to be protests in. in the capital Dhaka by those who are.

strongly opposed to her. And at the same. time, there is a possibility that some. of her supporters may also galvanize, may also come around to hold protest. So, there is a real concern that there. could be a political unrest as well as a. political instability. >> Let's talk now about the current. government in Bangladesh. There were. elections back in February. So, it's. been about 6 months since they've been. in power. How are they doing? >> For the first few months, the government. led by Mr. Tarique Rahman, his main job.

was to bring stability within the. country because there was an interim. government, there were lots of. differences and criticism about the way. the government interim administration. function. So, their main job was to. bring stability. And the second one was. to bring everyone together. So, there. was they wanted to have reconciliation. with the various groups. But they also. faced economic problems within a months. of coming to power. And they all they. they war in the Gulf started. That was. impacting the fuel prices. You know,

Bangladesh heavily depends on imported. fuel. So, that led to rise in fuel. prices and you know, there were rumors. of shortage that led to queues for a. long queues outside petrol stations. And. also, uh the UNICEF uh in Bangladesh was. saying how during the interim. administration not enough measures were. taken to procure vaccines for measles uh. in Bangladesh. Now, hundreds of kids. have died. Children have died because of. this measles. So, the government was. fighting again on another front. But,

they were also trying to promote. exports, trying to project a. business-friendly image, trying to reach. out to, you know, various countries in. the region and the globe. And want to. show that it is a business-friendly. country and attracting on asking for. countries and companies to come and. invest in the country. >> Sheikh Hasina has been in exile for. these last 2 years in India. How has. that affected ties with Bangladesh and. Bangladesh's ties with other partners in. the region? >> In South Asia, if you look at any of.

these countries like in Bangladesh, or. Sri Lanka, Nepal, you always have the. regional powers competing for influence. And Bangladesh is not an exception. For. a long time, India was quite dominant in. its influence in Bangladesh, mainly. because of Sheikh Hasina who had forged. a very close ties with Indian. leadership. Now, after her ouster, the. interim government again started uh. forging a close ties with the Pakistan, India's rival. And what we saw was a.

very uh close, fast-emerging. military-to-military cooperation. There. have been visits by Pakistani ministers. after more than a decade. So, on one. hand, it was uh developing close ties. with Pakistan. At the same time, it was. also looking up to China for technology, for investment. And usually what happens. in South Asia is any leader gets. elected, their first port of call after. the election would be to India because. India is a regional power, and they have. a bilateral economic ties. But, this.

time Mr. Rahman, uh he first went to. Malaysia on the way to China. So, where. he signed quite a few agreements, especially MOUs, on, you know, having as. a business zone, a commercial zone, and. also asking for more Chinese technology. and investment. And so far, he has not. visited India. So, that sends out a very. clear signal to India that, you know, as. long as Sheikh Hasina is in Delhi, it. will be very difficult for any. Bangladeshi government to, you know, make sure that that the the bilateral.

relations are back on track or back to. normal. So, that's going to be a very, you know, difficult situation for any. Bangladeshi government to go and tell. their people, you know, "Even though. Sheikh Hasina is in Delhi, I'm going to. go and meet the Indian leadership.". That's one of their sticking points for. the India-Bangladesh relations, though. they have grown in the past 6 months, but still some of these issues are. preventing them to have what they used. to have before. >> Our South Asia specialist, Ambalasan.

Ethirajan. And if you'd like to hear. more from the Global News Podcast, click. the link below. Thanks for watching.