Students chant slogans near a vandalised graffiti of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during a protest near Dhaka University in the Bangladeshi capital on August 12, 2024. | Photo credit: AFP
Interim Government of Bangladesh Diplomatic passport of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cancelled on Thursday (August 22, 2024), after she fled a student-led uprising earlier this month.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that Ms. Hasina’s passport, as well as those of former government ministers and former lawmakers who no longer hold their positions, “should be cancelled.”
More than 450 people were killed during the weeks before Ms. Hasina stepped down – many of them in police firing – when mobs stormed her official residence in Dhaka.
A UN team arrived in Bangladesh on Thursday (August 22, 2024) to assess whether to investigate alleged human rights violations during the protests that ended Hasina’s 15-year rule.
“The former prime minister, his advisers, the former Cabinet and members of the dissolved National Assembly were all eligible for diplomatic passports by virtue of their positions,” the ministry said in a statement.
“If they are removed from their posts or retire, their diplomatic passports and those of their spouses should be revoked.”
Hasina’s government has been accused of widespread abuses, including mass detention and extrajudicial killings of political opponents.
The new authorities in Dhaka said Ms. Hasina and other former top officials during her tenure could apply for standard passports, but these documents would be subject to approval.
“When the above persons apply afresh for ordinary passport, their application has to be approved by the two security agencies for issuance of their passport,” the ministry said.
Hasina, who fled to India, was a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra ModiHis government gave him greater preference over his rivals from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, whom it saw as closer to conservative Islamist groups.
While India is hosting Hasina, Modi has also offered his support to new Bangladeshi leader Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is heading the caretaker administration.
Yunus has said his administration would provide UN investigators “whatever assistance they require.”