The high and mighty rulers of the past have fallen like leaves in wintry weather and swept away into the dust bin of history. Absolute rulers who ruled with an iron fist such as Raza Shah Pehalvi, Ferdinand Marcos, Muamar Qadafi, Saddam Hussein to name a few are now all forgotten chapters of history. The latest fallen titan in this list is Hasina Wajid of Bangladesh who ruled over the fair land of Bengal for fifteen years and eliminated all those who opposed her but today she is a refugee in India and has been sentenced to death by a Bangladeshi court for crimes against humanity. Hasina Wajid had managed to rig elections and turned her country into a one party state with herself as the sole dictator.
The fall and flight of Hasina Wajid has proved once again that the ordinary people of the country are the biggest power and no ruler can escape the wrath of his own people. Hasina Wajid’s long rule is steeped in bloodshed, brutality and coercive tactics to prolong her rule. According to a UN report more than 1400 people were killed and many more injured during her brutal crackdown on the protest movement led by students in 2024. Street protests were cruelly and brutally put down by the use of modern weapons but all such tactics proved futile and the long rule of Hasina ended with her hurried flight to India in the dead of night. And the mighty power of the state proved helpless before the power of the people. Hasina managed to save her life by running away but she was tried in absentia by a court of law and convicted for crimes against humanity and charges of incitement to murder and inaction to prevent atrocities. Announcing the verdict in a courtroom packed with the relatives of the victims, the tribunal said the “accused prime minister committed crimes against humanity by her order to use drones, helicopters and lethal weapons” against the people. Sheikh Hasina said that the tribunal was a “politically motivated charade”. Her former home minister has also been convicted. The UN spokesperson regretted the sentence of death because they oppose the death penalty under all circumstances but they too asked for all persons in position of power to be held accountable for the killings during the 2024 protest movement in the country
Thrust into prominence with the assassination of her father, independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and much of her family in a military coup, Hasina early on fought for democracy, but her long reign as prime minister became marked by arrests of opposition leaders, crackdowns on free speech and suppression of dissent. Hasina has been staying in self-imposed exile in India’s capital New Delhi since August 2024, after student protesters forced her and the Awami League political party out of power. She was not present at the court in Dhaka. The former PM faced five charges such as inciting the murder of protestors, ordering dissenting persons to be hanged, ordering the use of lethal weapons and drones and helicopters to suppress the protest movement.
For many, it offers judicial validation for an uprising fueled by years of simmering anger against the creeping authoritarianism that defined her long rule. Ironically the Govt. of Narender Modi has not responded to the request of the Bangladeshi Govt. that Hasina to be extradited to Bangladesh to face her sentence India remains resolutely mute on the subject. The only response from Delhi was that it will “engage constructively with all stake holders” “As a close neighbor, India remains committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh, including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. The long rule of Hasina Wajid saw Bangladesh emerging from a dirt poor third world country to a great economy that became the envy of many Asian countries but at the same time there was great political unrest simmering below the glint and shine of economic progress. The Hasina Govt. brutally crushed all voices of protest and then in 2013 protest broke out against the execution of some leaders for cooperation with the Pakistan army in 1971. The early protest was put down and Hasina Wajid then started to build a personality cult around her deceased father or the founder of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujib Ur Rahman on the pattern of the rulers of North Korea. Huge portraits and statues of herself and Sheikh Mujib were placed all over the capital city of Dhaka and in other major cities of the country.
The trial and conviction of Sheikh Hasina has put Bangladesh under the microscope of the world media. There is tension and fear in the country and relations with India are at an all-time low. It is highly unlikely that India will hand over Hasina to Bangladesh.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad.
