The Crime Desk: The International Crimes Tribunal has issued an arrest warrant against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for disappearance and genocide. And former Indian High Commissioner Veena Sikri, who was serving in Bangladesh, has questioned the credibility of these disappearance and genocide allegations. She said that the international organization UN Human Rights Commission has not found any credible evidence in this regard. According to Indian news agency ANI
In an interview, Veena Sikri said, ‘This is the second arrest warrant against Sheikh Hasina. This is on the charges of disappearance… If you talk about the first arrest warrant, it was on the charges of so-called genocide. But no evidence or information was presented. When the UN Human Rights Commission was asked to report on the people who lost their lives in July-August, they said that we were not given any evidence… Is there any FIR? What is written in the FIR? What evidence is there? There is nothing…!’
Veena Sikri further said, ‘The extradition request is a long legal process. You have to provide evidence of the crimes that have been committed…but none of these have been done. Now, in the case of allegations of disappearances, you are just naming a few people in some way and saying that there have been disappearances. RAB is responsible and accused for these disappearances.’
Taking up the context of the formation of RAB, the diplomat said, ‘It was established during Begum Khaleda Zia, and since then all these allegations have been made against them that they take people away, make them disappear. Since then it has become a political issue. But now suddenly a case has been made about it, and 12 people have been accused. I don’t think these cases carry any importance.’
Earlier, on Monday, the International Crimes Tribunal issued arrest warrants against 10 people, including Sheikh Hasina and her former defense advisor, Major General (retd) Tariq Ahmed Siddique, and former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed. They have been charged with extrajudicial killings and disappearances.
It is worth noting that 77-year-old Sheikh Hasina left the country in the face of student and public protests on August 5. She has been living in India since then.
