Yunus advises Bangladesh’s former PM Haseena to ‘remain silent’ until the trial

Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina should “remain silent” while she is in India until she can be returned for trial, interim leader Muhammad Yunus told Indian media on Thursday.

Hasina, 76, fled to India by helicopter a month ago as protesters stormed her palace, marking a dramatic end to her 15-year rule.

Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate leading the interim government, has faced public pressure to seek her extradition and trial over the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the unrest that led to her removal.

“If India wants to keep her until Bangladesh requests her return, she must keep quiet,” Yunus, 84, told the Press Trust of India. “Her speaking out and issuing instructions from India is not helpful; it’s detrimental to both our countries.”

Since her ouster on August 5, Hasina has remained in India, straining relations between the two neighboring South Asian countries. She made a public statement shortly after arriving, calling for a gathering in Dhaka to commemorate the 1975 assassination of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a hero of Bangladesh’s independence.