Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina applies for passport ahead of planned return
Sheikh Hasina, ousted in 2024, has asked Bangladeshi authorities to issue a new passport and ID card as she prepares to return from exile in India.
Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has formally requested a new passport and identity card, a step she says signals her intention to return to the country in December after two years of self-imposed exile in India.
Hasina told Reuters that she plans to surrender before a Bangladeshi court, and her aides indicated that the exact date will be set once required formalities are completed.
In a letter cited by Reuters, she asked the government to process the request "expeditiously" on the basis of her Bangladeshi nationality.
The former leader, who served as prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2024, was sentenced to death in absentia by the war crimes court last November for her role in a 2024 crackdown on student protests that United Nations estimates say may have caused up to 1,400 deaths.
Her potential return could revive legal and political challenges in the 127-million-person nation and may affect relations with India, which soured after she fled there following the protests.