Hasina fled to India in 2024 after mass uprising. She faces death penalty upon return
Sheikh Hasina is “confident” she will return to Bangladesh in December, according to exiled members of her party, after the disgraced former prime minister of Bangladesh applied for a fresh passport this week.
Hasina has been living in self-imposed exile since August 2024 when she was toppled from power by a mass uprising against her authoritarian rule. She fled over the border to India, where she has since been allowed to live freely in Delhi.
Last November, a tribunal in Bangladesh found Hasina guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced her to death over her deadly crackdown on a student uprising that left an estimated 1,400 people dead.
Her return to Bangladesh is likely to be disruptive for the country where Hasina’s party, Awami League, is still banned and thousands of its members are in jail. Should she be allowed to return, she is likely to be arrested immediately.
Hasina first raised the prospect of going back to Bangladesh in August. Speaking to the Guardian this week, several exiled Awami League leaders also living in India confirmed that Hasina was serious and “confident” about returning by next month. They confirmed that several other party figures had returned to the country in anticipation.
On Monday, a UK lawyer acting on behalf of Hasina, wrote to the Bangladesh high commission requesting a new passport and national identity card to be issued “in a timely fashion”, in a letter seen by the Guardian.
“The reason our leader Sheikh Hasina has applied for a passport is that she genuinely wants to return,” said a party leader based in the Indian city of Kolkata, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media on the party’s behalf.
Hasina has rejected the charges of mass murder and crimes against humanity and claimed the tribunal who convicted her was illegitimate. “She is confident about her return, which is why she has applied for a new passport and a national identity card. If the authorities do not issue her a passport, she will apply for a travel pass to make her return to Bangladesh possible,” said the Awami League leader.
Since Hasina’s conviction, Bangladesh government has put pressure on the Indian authorities to extradite the former prime minister. However, the Indian government – which was very close to Hasina while she was in power – has ignored the demands, straining ties between the two countries.
This week, the Bangladesh government have said that as a “terrorist”, Hasina will only be allowed to return under an “acceptable prisoner exchange” under the India-Bangladesh extradition treaty. The chief prosecutor of the tribunal who sentenced Hasina condemned her announcement to return as a “nothing but a political stunt”.
Despite her conviction and the banning of her party, Hasina still commands significant popularity among the thousands of Awami League cadre still in Bangladesh, many who have been driven underground.
Analysts believe her decision to return, despite the risk of arrest, is driven by an attempt to revive her support base and destabilise the newly-elected government, led by prime minister Tarique Rahman. They were brought to power after in February in Bangladesh’s first democratic election in decades.
Since then, the government has struggled with inflation and recent protests that shut down garment factories, which Awami League hopes to use to its political advantage.
Another Awami League leader said all those in exile intended to follow Hasina back to Bangladesh, despite the threat of arrest and jail. Many of those who were close to Hasina over her 15 years in power have faced severe criminal charges since the fall of her government and have been given lengthy prison sentences in absentia.
“All of us are planning to go back. Some of us have been sentenced in absentia by kangaroo courts, and we know we will be jailed. But we are ready to face the consequences and return to our own people. We will fight this politically,” said the senior leader, who is also based in India.
Some senior party figures have already gone back in recent months, including former MP Mustaque Ahmed Ruhi. Ruhi was immediately arrested by police after returning in September and faces prosecution over an alleged murder committed during the 2024 uprising.
“There are serious threats and dangers, but our cadres and leaders are confident and prepared to return to our people,” the leader said.
During their years in exile, Awami League leaders have continued to meet in Kolkata, where many of them are living, and are routinely summoned to Delhi to meet Hasina.
Speaking over email this week, Hasina told the Associated Press she affirmed her decision to go back. “If death is my destiny, I would rather die on the soil of my own country, among my own people,” she said.
