Bangladesh’s ousted PM seeks new passport to return – report
Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has formally requested a new passport and identity card to facilitate her return from India next month, despite facing a death sentence at home, Reuters reported on Monday.
Her lawyers at the London-based Matrix Chambers wrote to the acting high commissioner at Bangladesh’s mission in New Delhi, Preeti Rahman, seeking replacement documents after her existing passport and identity card were reportedly revoked by the previous interim government in Dhaka.
Hasina was ousted following protests in August, 2024, ending her 15-year rule and forcing her to flee to India. A United Nations report estimated that as many as 1,400 people were killed during her government’s crackdown on the protests. She was sentenced to death in absentia by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal last November.
Her lawyers have sought expedited processing, citing her Bangladeshi citizenship and international human rights obligations.
Her continued stay in India has strained relations between New Delhi and Dhaka. Bangladesh has insisted that Hasina should be extradited. Bangladeshi Deputy Foreign Minister Humaiun Kobir, however, dismissed the idea of providing her a passport last Thursday.
New Delhi has said the extradition request is being examined through established legal procedures and that a timeline cannot be provided.
Hasina has previously said that she and senior members of her Awami League party planned to return in December and surrender before a court. Her aides said Monday that the exact date would be announced once the necessary formalities were completed.
The former prime minister reaffirmed her intention to return in an interview last week, saying she would go back “at any cost,” despite the possibility of arrest.
