Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister of Bangladesh who has been living in exile in India since 2024, formally requested a new passport on Monday as she prepares for a planned return to her home country in December.
Bangladesh’s government rejected the request the same day. Foreign Minister Humayun Kobir said, “Bangladesh does not issue passports to terrorists. We have asked for them to be handed over.” He added, “She is a fugitive criminal. We have an active extradition treaty with India. We want her handed over.” Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Aminul Islam called the passport request “merely political posturing.”
Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia in November 2025 on charges of crimes against humanity tied to the deaths of roughly 1,400 protesters during the unrest that ended her 15-year rule. She has called the trial “biased and politically motivated.”
How She Lost Power
Hasina’s government collapsed in August 2024 after a month of large and increasingly violent protests. She fled Bangladesh for India just as demonstrators broke into her official residence. The unrest began over a contentious job quota law, though Hasina has claimed the United States orchestrated her removal because she refused to cede control of a strategic island in the Bay of Bengal.
In late 2025, Bangladeshi prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty against her, accusing her of ordering police to use lethal force on student demonstrators. They described her as a “heartless criminal” who sought to “cling to power permanent for herself and her family.” The U.N. Human Rights Committee likewise accused Hasina and her senior officials of “serious and systemic human rights violations” in the government’s response to the protests. Her Awami League party was banned in Bangladesh in May 2025.
India Has Refused to Extradite Her
Bangladesh has repeatedly asked India to hand Hasina over under a 2013 extradition treaty between the two countries. India has declined, citing a treaty provision that allows it to reject requests deemed “political” in character.
Her Own Words
Hasina told the Associated Press last week that she plans to return to Bangladesh in December regardless of the risks she may face.
“If death is my destiny, I would rather die on the soil of my own country, among my own people. So, I will return to Bangladesh. That decision has not changed,” she said.
“I know that I may be arrested when I return. I may be imprisoned, tortured, or even killed. I am fully aware of those possibilities. But I cannot spend the rest of my life watching my people suffer from a distance,” she said.
Hasina claimed that at least 20,000 members of the Awami League have been killed since she lost power, with thousands more arrested or forced into hiding after losing their homes and businesses.
