Hasina's extradition request to be followed up: Foreign adviser

Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain today (3 July) said the government would continue to pursue the extradition of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, currently reported to be in India since 5 August last year.

"I don't know who regrets how much, but we see the matter this way - if necessary, the matter will be followed up," he told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when a reporter asked whether there was any regret over the government's failure to bring Hasina back nearly a year after the formal request.

Bangladesh had sent a diplomatic note (note verbale) to India in December last year, along with a set of supporting documents, formally requesting Hasina's extradition.

On the issue of water-sharing agreements, including the pending Teesta deal and the renewal of the 30-year-old Ganges Water Sharing Treaty - set to expire next year - Hossain stressed that such matters need to be resolved through bilateral discussions.

Regarding media reports suggesting that a recent meeting between Dhaka, Beijing and Islamabad was intended as an alternative alliance to SAARC, Adviser Hossain clarified that this interpretation was inaccurate.

The meeting never seemed to be an alternative to Saarc, he said, adding that it was a meeting to discuss some areas of cooperation and it was no way an alliance.