NEW DELHI — Sheikh Hasina, the ousted former prime minister of Bangladesh, declared on Wednesday that she intends to return home from exile in India this December, even though a Bangladeshi court has sentenced her to death over a deadly 2024 crackdown on protesters.
Speaking through an audio message at a New Delhi event marking two years since the student-led uprising that ended her 15-year rule, Hasina described her planned return as a moral duty, according to Arab News. “Fear cannot decide my duty to the people,” she said, acknowledging she could face jail or worse upon arrival.
Hasina fled to India in 2024 after mass protests erupted against her government. In 2025, a court in Bangladesh convicted her in absentia of crimes against humanity, citing her role in ordering security forces to suppress the demonstrations. The United Nations estimates nearly 1,400 people were killed. Hasina denies all charges.
While Bangladesh has repeatedly requested her extradition, India has refused to hand her over.
Alongside her announcement, Hasina called for the ban on her Awami League party to be lifted and for political prisoners to be freed.
On the same day, Bangladesh’s current Prime Minister Tarique Rahman opened a new memorial museum in Dhaka dedicated to the 2024 uprising. Housed in Hasina’s former official residence, the July Mass Uprising Memorial Museum displays audio-visual exhibits, personal items of victims, and press clippings from the period. It also records alleged political repression during Hasina’s time in power.
The museum project began under the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who assumed office on August 8, 2024, days after Hasina’s removal. Yunus attended the inauguration alongside Rahman, son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and Hasina’s longtime political rival.
Rahman won a landslide election in February under Yunus’ interim administration, which barred the Awami League from participating.
