Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, formally requested a new passport on Monday, with an eye toward returning from two years of political exile in December.
She was sentenced to death in absentia last year and the Bangladeshi government has been trying to extradite her from India ever since.
Hasina’s government toppled in August 2024 after a month of huge and increasingly violent public protests, bringing an end to her 15 years of rule. She fled Bangladesh and took refuge in India just as demonstrators were breaking into her official residence.
The protests began over a racially and politically charged job quota law, but Hasina claimed the U.S. government masterminded the plot to drive her from office because she refused to hand over control of a strategic island in the Bay of Bengal.
In late 2025, prosecutors in Bangladesh announced they would seek the death penalty for Hasina because she allegedly ordered police to use lethal force against student demonstrators. The prosecutors denounced her as a “heartless criminal” who wanted to “cling to power permanent for herself and her family.”
The U.N. Human Rights Committee also accused Hasina and her top officials of committing “serious and systemic human rights violations” while attempting to control the 2024 protests.
In May 2025, Hasina’s Awami League party was banned in Bangladesh. Hasina was tried in absentia and sentenced to death in November 2025 for “crimes against humanity” that led to the death of some 1,400 protesters. She denounced the trial as “biased and politically motivated.”
India has a 2013 treaty with Bangladesh that includes extradition rights, but India refused several demands to extradite Hasina by invoking a provision of the treaty that allows requests of a “political character” to be rejected.
Hasina told the Associated Press (AP) last week that she intends to return to Bangladesh in December, no matter what happens to her.
“If death is my destiny, I would rather die on the soil of my own country, among my own people. So, I will return to Bangladesh. That decision has not changed,” she said.
“I know that I may be arrested when I return. I may be imprisoned, tortured, or even killed. I am fully aware of those possibilities. But I cannot spend the rest of my life watching my people suffer from a distance,” she said.
Hasina claimed at least 20,000 members of the Awami League have been killed since she was driven from power, and thousands more have been arrested or driven into hiding, losing their homes and businesses.
The government of Bangladesh rejected Hasina’s passport request on Monday.
“Bangladesh does not issue passports to terrorists. We have asked for them to be handed over,” said foreign minister Humayun Kobir.
“She is a fugitive criminal. We have an active extradition treaty with India. We want her handed over,” he insisted.
Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Aminul Islam said Hasina’s passport request was “merely political posturing.”
