New Delhi: Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, facing a death sentence back home where her party is banned, told Reuters she and senior party colleagues plan to return from exile in India around December and surrender.
The South Asian nation’s longest-serving leader said she and members of her Awami League aim to return voluntarily to the country they fled two years ago and present themselves in court, testing Bangladesh’s handling of its most prominent political opponent.
“They may arrest me on my return, they may even kill me,” Hasina, 78, said in the nearly hour-long telephone interview late on Thursday and into Friday. “Still, I have to go,” she said. “My party leaders and workers are being subjected to tremendous repression. If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil, where my parents are buried and where their blood was shed.”
Hasina fled Bangladesh in 2024 after protests ended her 20 years as prime minister across multiple terms. The country’s war-crimes court sentenced her in November to death in her absence for or dering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising. She has denied the charges from exile.
A return could sharpen political divisions in the garment-export powerhouse as the government in Dhaka seeks to restore stability after two years of upheaval. On the other hand, it could improve strained ties with India, which deteriorated sharply after New Delhi gave her refuge.
Bangladesh has repeatedly urged India to extradite her. This is the first time she has set out a timetable for her return, said she plans to surrender or said other exiled Awami League leaders would do so. Among them, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also faces a death sentence.