'Tarique Rahman has dug a hole': Ex-foreign secretary after Bangladesh links PM's visit to Hasina extradition

Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal has criticised Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman after Dhaka linked his possible visit to India to the extradition of former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

"He (Tarique Rahman) has dug a hole from which he will not be able to extricate himself," Sibal said in a post on Monday. "Linking his visit to India to Hasina's extradition is playing hardball. This is petulance, not diplomacy. Should have left a door open. Imran Khan made the same mistake on Art 370."

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Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said officials from the two countries had been in touch for several weeks over the possibility of a bilateral visit by Rahman to India. But it said the process was "vitiated" by Hasina's public interaction in New Delhi on August 5.

Bangladesh said it had asked India to "expeditiously" act on its request to extradite Hasina and other fugitive criminals. It also sought the handover of the accused killers of Sharif Osman Hadi under the bilateral extradition treaty. "We are awaiting their response," the ministry said.

Hasina has been in India since she was ousted from power in August 2024.

Rahman's India Invitation

India has invited Rahman to New Delhi for the BRICS Summit. There have been reports that he may skip the visit.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Rahman twice so far. The first invitation was delivered personally by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla during his meeting with Rahman in Dhaka.

Avinash Paliwal, an author and non-resident scholar at Carnegie Asia, earlier said turning down the invitation would be a "huge error of political judgment".

Paliwal also said Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi was engaged in "serious, sincere, high-stakes diplomacy" to prevent ties from deteriorating further.

"It'll be a huge error of political judgment by Tarique Rahman to spurn India's 2nd invite to New Delhi," Paliwal said in a post earlier this month.