(Image source from: Indiatoday.in)

Bangladesh's interim government under Mohammad Yunus may soon revoke the diplomatic passports of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina as well as ministers and members of parliament (MPs). The Bangladesh government has started canceling all diplomatic passports, including those of Hasina, ministers and members of parliament, a senior government official told Hindustan Times on Thursday. A senior Interior Ministry official told. “This measure also applies to diplomatic passports of retired employees and those whose contracts have expired.” There is no official announcement on this yet. “Written instructions can be sent to the ministry on Thursday,” the official said. The decision to cancel diplomatic passports, commonly known as “red passports,” was “taken because they (officials) are no longer in their positions,” the official said.

However, the official said that the Home Ministry has only given verbal instructions to the Immigration and Passport Department in this regard and no official notification has been issued yet. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday called on India to extradite ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina so that she can face trial on charges of conspiring to end a student revolution. Longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister on August 5 and fled to India after weeks of deadly student protests, ending her 15-year rule. Hasina's government was replaced by an interim government, whose chief adviser was 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Since his firing, more than 40 lawsuits have been filed against him. These complaints accuse Hasina of committing murder, crimes against humanity and genocide during the country's recent anti-quota protests. The charges also include an attack on a rally in the city of Sylhet in which several people were shot and injured during the latest mass protests on August 4th.