NEW DELHI, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday that the ban on her Awami League party should be lifted and reiterated that she would return to her country in December.
Hasina’s comments were made during a media interaction hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi – on the second anniversary of her ouster in 2024.
Hasina had been expected to address the event virtually by video but delivered only an audio message. It was not immediately clear why she did not appear on video, unlike her party colleagues and her son, who spoke before her.
It was her first such interaction with the media since her ouster.
“I will return to my people,” Hasina said, speaking from behind a blank video screen, adding that she would share the exact date of her return and other details when the time was right.
“They may try to implicate me with fabricated cases, but fear cannot decide my duty to the people, my life or beyond,” she said.
Hasina, 78, told Reuters in an interview last month that she plans to return to her country by the end of the year and surrender to authorities there.
Hasina fled Dhaka two years ago after protests ended her 20 years as prime minister across multiple terms.
The country’s war-crimes court sentenced her to death in her absence in November 2025 for ordering a deadly crackdown on the student-led uprising. She has denied the charges from exile.
Bangladesh’s new government of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman – which took office after elections in February – warned the country’s media on Tuesday not to publish her statements, saying that doing so would violate a 2024 court order that prohibits the publishing or broadcasting of her speeches and statements.
There was no immediate comment from the government in response to Hasina’s latest remarks.
Dhaka has repeatedly asked for Hasina’s extradition from India. New Delhi has said that it is in receipt of the request and that it is being examined.
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed, Saurabh Sharma, Gnaneshwar Rajan and Ruma Paul; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by YP Rajesh)
