Dhaka sent “formal letters” requesting New Delhi to extradite ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina but received “no official response” from India in the matter, said Muhammad Yunus, head of the interim government in Bangladesh, in an interview with Sky News on Wednesday.

Yunus emphasised that Hasina would face trial “whether physically present in Bangladesh or in absentia” from India.

Hasina was ousted from power and fled to India on August 5 amid widespread student-led protests against her Awami League government. She had been the prime minister of Bangladesh for 16 years.

Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government on August 8.

The interim government has said it plans to investigate Hasina in connection with allegations that she ordered the killings and enforced disappearances of dissidents during the public uprising against her regime in July and August. A total of 51 cases have been filed against her, including 42 for murder. Two warrants for her arrest have also been issued.

“A trial will be taking place,” Yunus told Sky News. “Not only her, but also all the people who are associated with her – her family members, her clients or associates.”

Hasina has denied the allegations against her and claimed that she is being politically persecuted.

In December, the interim government said that it had sent a note verbale, or an unsigned diplomatic communique, to India formally seeking Hasina’s extradition.

“We have conveyed our request for Sheikh Hasina’s return for judicial purposes,” said the country’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain.

India confirmed receiving the note verbale from the Bangladesh High Commission.

The extradition treaty signed by the two countries in 2013 states that “extradition may be refused if the offence for which it is requested is an offence of political character”. However, it also adds that offences such as murder will not be considered as being of “political character”, according to Times of India.

Diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Dhaka have been strained since Hasina fled to India, after which incidents of violence against religious minorities were reported in several parts of Bangladesh.

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