Hasina’s presence in India will not be a ‘deterrent’ to broader India-Bangladesh relation: BNP’s Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir

Bangladesh’s relation with India will not be “captive” of one issue and the presence of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in India will not “deter” Bangladesh from pursuing its broader relation with India, said the senior most leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) that will form the next government of Bangladesh on Tuesday (February 17, 2026). Speaking exclusively to The Hindu in Dhaka at the party headquarters in Gulshan neighbourhood, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, General Secretary of the BNP said that Bangladesh will expedite the projects that are in its interest and will intensify development partnership with India.

“We believe that Hasina has really committed serious human rights violations. There is a popular demand to punish her and we believe that India should hand her over to us. But not handing over Sheikh Hasina to Bangladesh will not be a deterrent to build broader relation including trade and commercial ties. We want to build even better ties,” said Mr. Alamgir emphasising that the broader India-Bangladesh relation should not be “captive” to one issue.

Bangladesh under the interim government has repeatedly urged India to hand over Sheikh Hasina and some of the other senior members of the Awami League who fled after the 2024 uprising but India has not responded to these requests during the past seventeen months. Mr. Alamgir said there is a legal process for Ms. Hasina and her ministers and bureaucrats who were accused of carrying out murders and criminal acts during the uprising. “That process will continue,” he said.

Mr. Alamgir who led the standing committee of the BNP when the late PM Khaleda Zia was arrested during the Hasina era with Tarique Rahman staying in exile in the United Kingdom said India-Bangladesh relation has difficult issues to resolve but that should not overwhelm areas that are open for cooperation. “America and China have many difficulties in bilateral ties yet they are working with each other. We should not stick to just one issue in India-Bangladesh relation,” said Mr. Alamgir. He highlighted the historic role of BNP in Bangladesh’s politics and reminded that following the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August 1975, when Sheikh Hasina and other members of her family were based in India, President Ziaur Rahman, founder of BNP had travelled to India and had hosted Prime Minister Morarji Desai in Dhaka. He reminded that President Rahman had visited Delhi and met Indira Gandhi in January 1980 when Hasina was planning to return to Bangladesh for her political debut saying “That’s the statesmanlike approach.”

“Before next year, the issue of Farakka’s water will come up under the renewal of Ganga Waters Treaty, then there is the issue of border killings  and we must talk on these issues,” said Mr. Alamgir adding, “We can’t fight a war with India. We need to talk. Those who talk about fighting India are speaking like insane.” Along with Chairman of BNP Tarique Rahman, Mr. Alamgir is in favour of reconciliation with political rivals and visited the leaders of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and National Citizen Party (NCP) on Sunday (February 15, 2026).

He said that revenge and violence are detrimental to building healthy democratic environment in Bangladesh and said the interim government could not bring in reconciliation after the violent uprising of August 2024 as “the leaders of the uprising chose Prof. Yunus” adding, “Prof. Yunus could not go outside of the brief that the leaders of the uprising gave him.”

He presented the 31-point agenda of the BNP as an opportunity that will give India and Bangladesh a chance to work in areas like trade, commerce, capacity building and in digital infrastructure. “India has resources in technical education and we have a large number of unemployed youngsters. We need to help them with capacity building so that they can get jobs in the Gulf,” said Mr. Alamgir. He also pointed out that the BNP government will have to deal with the burden of loan that the Awami League government has left behind and it will re-evalualate various projects to see which of the mega projects are wasteful. “Out of these projects we will retain the ones that serve Bangladesh’s interest,” he said.