India’s role as a regional power comes with responsibilities. One of them is refusing to harbor leaders accused of mass killings. The United Nations human rights office found that as many as 1,400 people were killed during the July and August 2024 crackdown in Bangladesh. About 180 of them were children. These were not combatants. They were students who believed their voices mattered.
Sheikh Hasina calls the response “proportionate in nature, made in good faith and intended to minimise the loss of life.” The record shows something else. Security forces used live ammunition, carried out executions at point blank range, and tortured detainees. These are crimes, not mistakes. Hasina’s security forces butchered her own citizens and then fled accountability.
India’s decision to provide safe haven shields her from justice and undermines its claim to be a responsible regional leader. The interim government in Dhaka, backed by the findings of the United Nations, has begun efforts to reform the security sector and hold those responsible to account. That process cannot move forward while the architect of the violence remains beyond reach.
New Delhi should not stand between Bangladesh and justice. If India believes in due process, it can ensure Hasina’s return under international supervision. But allowing her to remain in exile while families bury 1,400 loved ones mocks the very values India claims to defend.
A nation that once fought for its own freedom should not protect a leader who crushed hers. India must send Hasina back to face her people and her crimes. The children who died in the streets of Dhaka deserve nothing less.