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Bangladesh's ousted leader Hasina requests new passport, says she will return in December

A Bangladeshi minister calls her a terrorist and says Dhaka wants India to hand her over, while she faces a death sentence issued in absentia.

Sheikh Hasina in Gopalganj Kotalipara in 2023
Sheikh Hasina in Gopalganj Kotalipara in 2023. Photo: DelwarHossain, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
5 news outlets reported this
Liberal3 outletsWhether Hasina's December return is real or bluffCenter1 outletHasina's passport request and the government's responseConservative1 outletDhaka's rejection and Hasina's record in power
ABRAnews EditorialPublished 1 min read
Overview

Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh's former prime minister, requested a new passport and national identity card on Monday, through a London law firm's letter to Bangladesh's diplomatic mission in New Delhi. She has lived in exile in India since a student-led uprising forced her out in August 2024, and she says she wants to return in December. A tribunal sentenced her to death in absentia in 2025 for crimes against humanity over the crackdown on the protests.

She denies wrongdoing and rejects the verdict. Her aide Abu Obaidha Arin called the request "a significant step toward her homecoming." Humaiun Kobir, Bangladesh's junior minister for foreign affairs, called her a terrorist and a fugitive and said Dhaka wants India to hand her over under an extradition treaty.

India has declined. Salahuddin Ahmed, the Home Minister, said foreign and law ministries were weighing whether the request has any legal basis, the Dhaka daily New Age reported. Al Jazeera and Breitbart report that the government rejected the request.

Chief prosecutor Aminul Islam said she would face execution if she returns. Tarique Rahman, the son of a longtime rival of Hasina, became prime minister after a February election that her Awami League party was barred from contesting.

Key figures
  • at least 20,000Awami League members killed since her ouster, by Hasina's own claimBreitbart News

Three sides of the story

3Liberal1Center1Conservative

5 news outlets reported this

Tap a color or swipe sideways to switch sides.

Liberal3 outlets

Whether Hasina's December return is real or bluff

The Guardian leads with Hasina being "confident" she will return in December, according to exiled Awami League members, and says she would likely be arrested at once. It quotes chief prosecutor Aminul Islam saying there is "no legal scope" for a new passport. Al Jazeera's news report calls the request "the clearest sign" she plans to return and cites Reuters on her saying she intends to surrender before a court.

Its analysis piece asks what her "game plan" is. There, retired US diplomat Jon Danilowicz sees "zero chance" of a December return and calls it "a bluff," while Zillur Rahman of the Centre for Governance Studies says she wants to keep party activists engaged. ABC News runs the AP report, which opens with the passport request and quotes her aide Abu Obaidha Arin.

Center1 outlet

Hasina's passport request and the government's response

The Seattle Times runs the Associated Press report, which opens with Hasina asking for a new passport on Monday to help her return from exile two years after her ouster. It carries her line that she would "rather die on the soil of my own country" and the letter from London law firm Matrix Chambers asking for the application to be handled "expeditiously." Her aide Abu Obaidha Arin calls the request "a significant step toward her homecoming."

The report then gives the government side. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed says ministries are checking for a legal basis, and Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir says, "She is a terrorist. She is a fugitive."

It closes with background on the death sentence, the UN's figure of nearly 1,400 killed, and Tarique Rahman's landslide after the February election.

Conservative1 outlet

Dhaka's rejection and Hasina's record in power

Breitbart News reports that Hasina formally requested a passport on Monday, aiming to be back in December, and that the government rejected the request on Monday. It quotes Humayun Kobir, whom it calls foreign minister: "Bangladesh does not issue passports to terrorists." Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Aminul Islam calls the request "merely political posturing."

Much of the piece is background on her record. It cites the UN Human Rights Committee accusing her and top officials of "serious and systemic human rights violations," the 2025 ban on her Awami League, and India's refusal to extradite her under a treaty provision on requests of a "political character." It also gives Hasina's own claims: that the US government plotted her removal over a strategic island, and that at least 20,000 party members have been killed.

She says she may be "imprisoned, tortured, or even killed."

Where outlets disagree
All sources: 9 articles from 5 outlets

Liberal (7)

Center (1)

Conservative (1)