Arrest warrant against exiled ex-Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina

A Bangladeshi court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was removed from power in August after a nationwide student protest in Bangladesh, news agency AFP reported.

"The court has ordered the arrest of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and for her to appear in court on November 18," stated Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal. During

The former PM fled to India and has not been publicly seen since fleeing Bangladesh. Her last official whereabouts were at a military airbase near India's capital New Delhi.

According to the news agency, an arrest warrant was issued against Hasina for charges of crimes against humanity. During Hasina's 15-year rule, there were reports of widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.

"Sheikh Hasina was at the helm of those who committed massacres, killings, and crimes against humanity from July to August", Islam added.

Prosecutor B.M. Sultan Mahmud said the Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal under Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the country's interim leader, issued the arrest warrants in response to two petitions submitted by the prosecution.

The court also issued an arrest warrant for Obaidul Quader, the fugitive former general secretary of Hasina's Awami League party, as well as 44 others, who were not named.

Dozens of Hasina's allies were taken into custody after her regime collapsed, accused of culpability in a police crackdown that killed more than 700 people during the unrest that deposed her.

Former cabinet ministers and other senior members of her Awami League party have been arrested, and her government's appointees were purged from courts and the central bank. AFP