Bangladesh interim govt files barrage of cases against Sheikh Hasina
Bangladesh has filed more than a dozen cases so far against Sheikh Hasina since her ouster as prime minister, people familiar with the matter said, alleging that the cases have been filed at the insistence of Hasina's adversary, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Last week, Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal also launched an investigation against the former PM and nine others on charges of «genocide and crimes against humanity» during the student protest that led to her ouster. The tribunal is a domestic court that deals with the issues of international crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Last Tuesday, the deposed PM was slapped with a murder case along with six others over the death of a grocery shop worker amid the July unrest. The next day, a case of enforced disappearance was filed against her and several former members of her cabinet, on charges of kidnapping a lawyer in 2015. On Saturday, another case was filed against her, in connection with the death of a student during the protest.
The people cited earlier said that the advice for filing cases may have come from attorney general Md Asaduzzaman, senior lawyer and a member of the BNP. His appointment, on August 8, showed that the BNP was shaping key decisions of the interim government, they said.
The appointment of Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury as the new home affairs adviser was also based on the advice of BNP, according to Bangladesh watchers. Chowdhury, who had several run-ins with India during the 2001-06 BNP rule,
