Pakistan behind Sheikh Hasina's death sentence? BJP leader says, 'She was not...'

Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleged that former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death at the behest of Pakistan. A tribunal in Dhaka on Monday accused Hasina of committing crimes against humanity during last year's protests and handed her a death sentence. Hasina, aged 78, had fled Bangladesh amid the unrest and has since been living in exile in India.

What did Suvendu Adhikari say?

Adhikari, Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal legislative assembly, said on Hasina's conviction: "This has been done on Pakistan's orders. It will not be implemented." He added: "Sheikh Hasina is progressive...Sheikh Hasina was not associated with extremists." After Monday's court verdict, Hasina reacted with sharp words, saying it revealed the "brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures in an unelected government." She added: "I wholly deny the accusations that have been made against me in the ICT. I mourn all of the deaths that occurred in July and August of last year, on both sides of the political divide. But neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters."

What happened in Bangladesh last year?

The three-member tribunal pronounced its verdict against Hasina and her two aides -- former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun. A student-led anti-government uprising had rocked Bangladesh in July and August of last year. An estimated 1,400 people were killed and thousands others injured -- most of them by gunfire from security forces. It was the worst episode of violence in the country since its 1971 war of independence. Bangladesh was earlier part of Pakistan.