Bangladeshi student leader Nahid Islam wants ousted PM Hasina to face trial – Asia Pacific

A Bangladeshi student leader who played a key role in the ouster of Sheikh Hasina and is now part of a caretaker government said she must face trial when she returns home, as scheduled, for killings committed during her term, including during recent protests that prompted her to resign and flee on Monday.

About 300 people, many of them university and college students, have been killed in the demonstrations that began in July with student protests against job quotas in civil service jobs before escalating into violent protests aimed at removing Hasina, who has ruled Bangladesh for 20 of the past 30 years.

Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said she would return to Bangladesh from India, where she is currently sheltering, as soon as elections are announced in her home country. The main opposition has been demanding that they be held in three months.

“I wonder why she fled the country,” student leader Nahid Islam, who is a de facto minister in the caretaker government, told Reuters late on Friday, in his first interview since joining the government on Thursday as an adviser.

“We will seek justice for all the killings that took place under her rule, that was one of the main demands of our revolution. Even if she doesn’t come back, we will strive for it.”

“We want to arrest her – whether it’s through the regular court system or a special tribunal or not, we are discussing how to proceed in this case,” said Islam, 26, who currently heads the ministry of posts, telecommunications and information technology.

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 reached.

Another student leader, Abu Baker Mojumder, told Reuters in a separate statement that they want Hasina to return and face trial.

Islam said one of the main priorities of the caretaker government was to hold free and fair elections, after the previous one was boycotted by the opposition, and to investigate allegations of corruption in the previous government.

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

“My ambitions of who I become depend on the people of Bangladesh,” he said when asked if he would like to become prime minister one day.

He said India has relations with Hasina’s Awami League party but not with the general public of Bangladesh.

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