India did not respond to Hasina's extradition, what will be Bangladesh's next step?

Bangladesh has demanded that India send back Sheikh Hasina. India has not given much importance to this demand. There has been no response from it so far. In such a situation, what will be Bangladesh's next step on this issue is a big question. However, it has said that it will send a reminder letter to India. According to The Daily Star, Dhaka will send a reminder letter to New Delhi.

Bangladesh Foreign Ministry said, we have not received any reply from New Delhi yet. We will wait for the reply. If we do not get it by the stipulated time, we will send a reminder letter. In response to a question, the Foreign Ministry said that Dhaka's next step will depend on Delhi's response. We do not want to comment on this at this time or speculate on the situation.

Earlier on Monday, Bangladesh sent a diplomatic note through its mission in New Delhi requesting the Indian government to extradite Hasina for judicial proceedings in Bangladesh. There has been no comment from the Ministry of External Affairs on Bangladesh's demand so far.

More than 100 cases were registered against Hasina during the July uprising. The Bangladesh-based International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has issued an arrest warrant against Hasina for crimes against humanity and genocide. Her government fell on August 5. After losing power, Sheikh Hasina came to India.

India and Bangladesh signed an extradition treaty in 2013, but the mere existence of the treaty does not mean that New Delhi has to hand over Sheikh Hasina to Dhaka. According to the treaty, extradition can be denied if the crime is of a political nature. However, the list of crimes that cannot be considered political is quite long. Some of the crimes under which Hasina has been booked are excluded from the definition of political crimes in the treaty.

Amendment made in the extradition treaty in 2016

The treaty was amended in 2016 to simplify the extradition process. An amendment to Article 10 (3) of the treaty eliminated the requirement for the country seeking extradition to provide evidence of the crime committed. The extradition process now only requires an arrest warrant issued by a court in that country, and Bangladesh has several such warrants against Hasina. But Article 8 provides several grounds for refusing extradition.

India has the option of refusing Hasina's extradition on the grounds that the charges against her are not in good faith in the interest of justice. However, this could further strain relations between New Delhi and Dhaka.