Bangladesh’s ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has formally requested a new passport and national identity card, taking a significant step towards returning from exile in India, according to reports on Monday. Her lawyers submitted the applications on Monday, with Hasina hoping to return in December.
Hasina has been a refugee in India for two years, according to reports, since she was ousted from power. Dhaka has pushed back, however: Bangladesh has turned down the passport request, insisting her return should follow the legal process, according to reports, and has renewed its demand for India to extradite her. The move is the clearest sign yet of an imminent return by the former leader, whose departure reshaped Bangladeshi politics and left her Awami League party banned in Bangladesh.
A death sentence hangs over any return
Hasina faces a death sentence handed down in absentia over the deadly crackdown on student-led protests in 2024, according to reports. She denies the charges and says she intends to surrender before a court, according to reports.
That pledge, if carried out, would set up an extraordinary homecoming: a former prime minister returning to face a court that has already sentenced her to death in her absence, in a country where her party is banned and the political order she led has been dismantled. Her supporters present the return as a test of whether Bangladesh’s courts and its interim-era politics can handle a figure of her stature fairly. Her critics will see it as a challenge to the verdicts and the political settlement that followed the 2024 protests.
What a December return would mean
Hasina had promised a return in December, according to reports, and the passport application gives that promise a concrete form. A passport and identity card are practical necessities for travel and for any legal process on arrival, and Dhaka’s response — reportedly a refusal — is itself a political decision, watched closely in Dhaka and in Delhi.
India’s role is also central. Hasina has lived in exile in India since her ouster, and any return would require coordination between the two governments, even if neither has publicly set out the terms. For Bangladesh, the question is not only legal — what happens in court — but political: whether her return steadies or destabilises a country still working through the aftermath of 2024. For now, the application is a signal, not a homecoming. The next steps — the ministry’s response, a travel date, and whether she does surrender before a court — will show whether December brings a return, a standoff, or a delay.
