India has extended Bangladesh former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visa

India has extended former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visa amid recently renewed calls for her extradition to Bangladesh, reports the Hindustan Times.

The former premier’s visa was recently extended to facilitate her stay in India, reports the Delhi-based Hindustan Times citing people “familiar with the matter”.

They rejected speculation about Hasina being granted asylum in the country by pointing out that India does not have a specific law for dealing with refugees and matters such as asylum, says the HT report.

The move to extend the visa involved the Indian Home Ministry and was done through the local Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), they said without providing details.

The extension of Hasina’s visa comes in the backdrop of the call by the interim government in Bangladesh for Hasina’s extradition through a note verbale, or unsigned diplomatic correspondence, sent to the External Affairs Ministry on December 23.

The latest developments come at a time when Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, set up to prosecute persons accused of genocide and crimes against humanity, issued a second arrest warrant against Hasina on January 6 for enforced disappearances among other crimes. The tribunal directed Bangladeshi police officials to arrest Hasina and 11 others and produce them before the panel on February 12.

The chief of Bangladesh’s National Independent Investigation Commission, Maj Gen (retired) ALM Fazlur Rahman, also a former head of Border Guards Bangladesh, said members of the panel wished to visit India to “interrogate” Hasina as part of an investigation into the killing of 74 people by the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles in 2009.

According to Hindustan Times, these actions by Bangladesh are being seen in India as efforts by some elements in Bangladesh’s interim government to keep up pressure for Hasina’s extradition.