Dhaka: In a verdict that has ignited Bangladesh’s streets into a tinderbox of fury, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was handed a death sentence by the International Crimes Tribunal on Sunday, accused of orchestrating the brutal deaths of over 1,400 people during her regime.
The 400-page ruling, spanning six exhaustive parts and delivered under Justice Murtaja’s gavel, nailed her on three of five counts — death for the first two, life behind bars for the third — while convicting three aides alongside her.
The ink had barely dried when chaos erupted nationwide. Hasina’s loyalists clashed with radical foes in a frenzy of arson, bombings, and protests, turning every major city into a battlefield. From Dhaka’s teeming alleys to remote townships, flames licked the night sky, evoking the grim spectre of civil war just weeks before the February 2026 polls.
Yet, whispers of a deeper intrigue swirl: a brazen power conspiracy allegedly masterminded by Pakistan’s shadowy Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Sources claim the verdict was no judicial thunderbolt but a scripted sabotage to sideline Hasina and crown a pliable regime — perhaps Khaleda Zia’s BNP or the firebrand Jamaat-e-Islami — under Islamabad’s thumb. High-stakes visits by ISI chief Mohammad Asim Malik, Navy head Admiral Naveed Ashraf, and sundry generals to Dhaka’s corridors of power, alongside huddles with the Yunus administration, fuel the fire. Adding fuel, Pakistan’s radical cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman jetted in a day prior, rallying extremists with fiery calls to “safeguard Islam”; his presence was timed with diabolical precision.
Dhaka’s Foreign Ministry has fired off an extradition demand to New Delhi, where Hasina has sought refuge since her ouster. As pre-poll violence simmers, Bangladesh teeters on the brink — will this be the death knell for democracy or the spark for Hasina’s phoenix-like resurgence? The nation holds its breath.