Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has formally requested a new passport and national identity card. Al Jazeera reported that the request is the clearest sign yet that she plans to keep her promise to return home in December. Hasina, 79, has lived in India for two years.
Her lawyer, Steven Powles KC of Matrix Chambers, sent the request in a letter dated November 9, the Eastleigh Voice reported. The letter went to the Acting High Commissioner of Bangladesh in New Delhi. It cites the "reported revocation" of her old passport and ID card by the authorities. It bases the request on her Bangladeshi nationality and asks officials to process it "expeditiously".
Hasina told Reuters that she intends to surrender before a court in Bangladesh, according to Al Jazeera. Her aides said on Monday that the date would be announced once the formalities are complete. Bangladesh's war crimes court sentenced her to death in absentia last November. The court found that she ordered a deadly crackdown on the 2024 student protests. United Nations estimates say as many as 1,400 people may have been killed.
Dhaka has not yet decided. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said the foreign and law ministries are reviewing the applications, the New Age daily reported. They are checking whether the applications have a legal basis and whether Hasina is entitled to apply.
Bangladesh wants India to hand her over. Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir told reporters in Dhaka on Thursday that the two countries have an active extradition treaty. "She is a terrorist. She is a fugitive," he said. New Delhi has declined to hand her over.
Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2024. Student protests over a quota system for government jobs grew into a nationwide uprising. She resigned on August 5, 2024, and fled to India by helicopter, the Eastleigh Voice reported. Al Jazeera said she still has support among parts of the population. Her return could affect the government's efforts to stabilise the country and its economy.