Why Sheikh Hasina's plan to return to Bangladesh is contentious

Bangladesh swiftly rejected this week a request for a new passport from deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 78, who plans to return home in December from self-imposed exile in India. Hasina fled to India in August 2024 after a deadly student-led uprising ended a long tenure that saw her widely accused of crushing dissent and dismantling democratic checks and balances, accusations she denies.

Many opposition leaders lived abroad during that period, and the opposition often boycotted elections. A Bangladeshi court sentenced her to death in November last year for ordering a deadly crackdown on protesters in 2024 that the UN estimates killed as many as 1,400.

A ban since her government's fall kept Hasina's Awami League party from competing in the last general election in February, bringing the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to power. Tarique Rahman, the son of Hasina's biggest political rival Khaleda Zia, is now prime minister.

Rahman himself lived in self-imposed exile in London when Hasina was in power. Months after Hasina fled, an interim government that took office revoked her passport and national identity document. On November 9, her lawyers requested new ones from the Bangladesh embassy in New Delhi, the Indian capital.

Their emailed letter asked for the papers to be issued "expeditiously", citing her Bangladeshi nationality, as well as adherence to obligations under "international human rights instruments". The Bangladesh government said it "doesn’t provide passport to a terrorist" and urged New Delhi to hand her over, citing an extradition treaty with India.

"Should we treat her like an ordinary commercial traveller and tell her to come and visit her in-laws’ residence?" asked Humaiun Kobir, the state minister for foreign affairs. India's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment, but in April it said it was examining Bangladesh's extradition request, citing a desire to engage constructively with the new government and further strengthen ties.

Political analysts say the government of Bangladesh does not want Hasina's return to turn into a political spectacle that could potentially galvanise her supporters. The Awami League has said Hasina will return home in December, with documents or without.

People regularly cross the long and partly porous border illegally, though Hasina and her party have not said how she would return if denied the papers. In a telephone interview with Reuters in July, she said authorities in Bangladesh might arrest her on her return or that she could be killed.

She wanted to return voluntarily and surrender, she added. "If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil, where my parents are buried and their blood was shed." Despite the risks, she said it was important to stand by party workers in Bangladesh facing difficulties in the absence of their leaders.

The world's second-biggest garment exporter has been trying to recover from the political and economic turmoil around Hasina's ouster. Tension is high despite elections this year that brought greater political stability while conflict in the Middle East has raised the cost of living and brought severe shortages of fuel and power supply.