"I just spoke on the phone to Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, former home minister of Bangladesh, who has also been given the death sentence by the tribunal. Kamal, currently in India, said that he believes the tribunal is invalid and unconstitutional, and that he does not care about the verdict. He noted that the tribunal was established to try individuals who opposed the Mukti Yuddha (Bangladesh Liberation War), arguing that it therefore lacked constitutional authority to conduct such trials."
"I asked him what India's role could be after the verdict specifically, whether the interim government of Bangladesh could pressure Indian authorities to hand them over to Bangladesh. Kamal said he did not think India would take the verdict seriously, and he expected that India would not support the current government in Bangladesh and would resist any pressure from it. In response to a question about the use of lethal weapons, Kamal claimed that the security forces used them to protect themselves. Therefore, according to him, they did not do anything wrong."
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and associates were found guilty of crimes against humanity for the violent suppression of anti-government protests in 2024. A Dhaka tribunal sentenced Hasina to death; she remains in exile in India and refused to return for trial. The interim government increased security ahead of the verdict and Hasina's Awami League called for a nationwide shutdown. Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, also sentenced to death and currently in India, called the tribunal invalid and unconstitutional and argued it targeted opponents of the 1971 Liberation War. Kamal expects India to resist Bangladeshi pressure to extradite them and defended security forces' use of lethal weapons as self-protection.
Read at www.dw.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]