New Delhi: Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has asked for a new passport and identity card from Dhaka to enable her to return home from India.
She has been in India after fleeing Bangladesh in August 2024, following an uprising by students and fundamentalists.
Hasina made this request on Monday through a letter seen by Reuters. She had earlier said that she plans to return to Bangladesh despite being sentenced to death by a tribunal there.
Her plans to return raises the prospect of fresh political and legal tensions in Bangladesh where her party – Awami League – has been banned.
She plans to return to surrender before a court, Hasina told Reuters. Her aides said on Monday that the date would be announced once various formalities were completed.
“In view of the reported revocation of her existing Bangladeshi passport and National Identity Card (NID) 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,” Hasina’s lawyers at London-based Matrix Chambers wrote to Preeti Rahman, acting high commissioner at Bangladesh’s embassy in Delhi.
The letter asked for the applications to be processed “expeditiously” on the basis of her Bangladeshi nationality and in accordance with “obligations arising under international human rights instruments”.
There has not been any immediate response from the Bangladeshi high commission in New Delhi or officials in Dhaka.
The Awami League party was the country’s largest before it was banned following Hasina’s fall. Many of her party colleagues have either been jailed or are in self-imposed exile in India or elsewhere.
Having ruled Bangladesh for 20 years as prime minister across multiple terms, Hasina still enjoys support among sections of the population, and a return could sharpen political divisions as the government in Dhaka seeks to restore stability after more than two years of upheaval, as reported by The Telegraph Online.
Her return could, however, improve Bangladesh’s ties with India, which deteriorated sharply after New Delhi gave her refuge. Dhaka has repeatedly sought her extradition.
