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New Delhi: Bangladesh on Sunday (August 16) signalled that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s proposed visit to India this month could be delayed, asking New Delhi to “expeditiously” act on its request to extradite former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and saying her public interaction in Delhi earlier this month had “vitiated” the process of arranging the trip.

In a statement, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said officials from the two countries had been in contact for “several weeks” over the possibility of a bilateral visit by Rahman, but the process had been disrupted by Hasina’s live interaction with journalists in New Delhi on August 5.

“However, this process was vitiated by the open press interaction in New Delhi on 5th August by Sheikh Hasina,” the ministry said, referring to the former prime minister, who has been convicted by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal of crimes against humanity.

Dhaka said it had already made its position on the issue clear to New Delhi and argued that “a propitious environment needs to be created for the visit”.

“To this end, we have requested the Indian authorities to expeditiously act on our request to extradite Sheikh Hasina and other fugitive criminals,” the ministry said. It also asked India to hand over those accused of killing Sharif Osman Hadi, a request it said was made in accordance with the bilateral extradition treaty.

“We are awaiting their response,” the ministry said.

The statement is the clearest indication, so far, that the dispute over Hasina’s activities from India has become directly entangled with efforts to arrange........

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