Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has requested a new passport and identity card to allow her to return from self-imposed exile in India. The request is the clearest sign that Hasina, who has been living in India for two years, plans to make good on her promise that she would return to Bangladesh in December.
Hasina told the Reuters news agency that she intended to surrender before a court in Bangladesh, and her aides said on Monday the date would be announced once various formalities were completed. Bangladesh’s war crimes court sentenced Hasina to death in absentia last November for ordering a deadly crackdown on student protests that swept the country in 2024, with up to 1,400 people killed according to United Nations estimates.
Hasina’s letter to the Bangladeshi government asked that her request be processed expeditiously on the basis of her Bangladeshi nationality. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said the foreign and law ministries were looking into the matter, including whether there was any legal basis for the applications and whether Hasina was legally entitled to apply for the documents, according to the New Age daily.
Last week, Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir stated that Bangladesh wants Hasina returned under an extradition treaty with India, though New Delhi has declined to hand her over. He told reporters in Dhaka on Thursday that she is a fugitive and a terrorist under an active extradition treaty between Bangladesh and India.
Hasina is the daughter of Bangladesh’s founder and first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and served as prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and from 2009 to 2024. Her potential return raises the prospect of renewed legal and political issues, as she still enjoys support among parts of the population and her return could affect government stabilisation efforts.
Why it matters
The formal passport request by ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina escalates diplomatic and legal tensions regarding her extradition between Bangladesh and India.