NEW DELHI — Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally requested a new passport and national identity card on Monday, mounting her first official push to end a two-year exile in India and face court proceedings in Dhaka.
She intends to surrender. Her legal team confirmed that the former premier plans to return to Bangladesh in December, setting up an explosive confrontation in a country where her political party remains outlawed and her legacy bitterly contested. Bangladesh's war-crimes tribunal sentenced Hasina to death in absentia in November last year, convicting her of ordering a lethal crackdown on student demonstrators during the 2024 mass uprising that abruptly ended her two-decade grip on power. She has repeatedly denied the charges.
London-based law firm Matrix Chambers, representing Hasina, delivered the formal petition directly to Preeti Rahman, the acting high commissioner at Bangladesh's diplomatic mission in New Delhi. The lawyers urged Dhaka to reissue the documents swiftly after the previous interim administration revoked her passport and National Identity Card.
"In view of the reported revocation of her existing Bangladeshi passport and National Identity Card by the Interim Government and other authorities, I respectfully request that you take the necessary steps to issue a new Bangladeshi passport and National Identity Card for our client," the legal petition stated, invoking her fundamental nationality rights under international human rights treaties.
Dhaka faces a delicate balancing act. Spokespeople for Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's government in Dhaka and officials at the embassy in New Delhi did not comment on the formal application. Hasina ruled Bangladesh across multiple tenures spanning 20 years, retaining staunch pockets of domestic support despite the total ban placed on her Awami League. Scores of her senior cabinet lieutenants and party organizers remain behind bars or scattered across foreign capitals.
Yet her physical return carries immense geopolitical friction. Bilateral relations between New Delhi and Dhaka plunged to historic lows after India granted her sanctuary in 2024, leaving diplomatic channels frayed for over two years. A negotiated repatriation could reshape regional dialogue, but it also threatens to ignite street clashes across Bangladeshi cities already struggling to stabilize an unsettled post-revolution economy.
Held under sentence of capital punishment, Hasina must navigate immediate detention the moment her plane touches down in Dhaka. Aides to the former prime minister indicated that her legal defense will announce a concrete travel date once diplomatic clearances and travel identity papers are finalized.