India Extends Sheikh Hasina’s Visa

India has extended former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's visa despite calls for her extradition by Dhaka, reports the Hindustan Times.

Hasina fled to India on August 5 last year amid a people's uprising against her Awami League government and has been in the country since then.

Her visa was recently extended to facilitate her stay in India. Hindustan Times citing people "familiar with the matter" against the backdrop of growing calls in Dhaka for her extradition.

The move to extend the visa involved the Indian Home Ministry and was done through the local Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), they said without providing details.

India also rejected speculation about Hasina being granted asylum in the country. India does not have a specific law for dealing with refugees and matters such as asylum, says the HT report.

Hasina has been incommunicado since she arrived at Hindon airbase on August 5, though it is learnt that she has been moved to a safe house in Delhi. The interim government in Dhaka led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus sought her extradition through a note verbale, or unsigned diplomatic correspondence, sent to the external affairs ministry on December 23.

HT reported on January 3 that the Indian government is unlikely to respond to Bangladesh’s request to extradite Hasina, with people familiar with developments saying that Dhaka hasn’t completed key formalities necessary to take forward such an issue.

On Tuesday evening, a Bangladeshi official in Dhaka announced the Department of Immigration and Passports’ decision to cancel the passports of 97 people, including Hasina, for their alleged involvement in enforced disappearances and killings during protests in July.

“The passports department cancelled passports of 22 people involved in enforced disappearances, while passports of 75 people, including Sheikh Hasina, were revoked due to their involvement in the July killings,” Abul Kalam Azad Majumder, a spokesperson for Yunus, told a media briefing, according to state-run BSS news agency.