Sheikh Hasina plans return to Bangladesh by December, claim aides

Bangladesh’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina is preparing to voluntarily return to Dhaka by December to revive her Awami League, sources close to her said on Friday.

Hasina, 78, has been living in India after she fled Dhaka following the collapse of her Government in August 2024 in the face of a massive anti-Government agitation.

It is completely a voluntary decision by her to return home, the sources said.

In November last, Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia by a special tribunal in Dhaka for alleged “crimes against humanity” over her Government’s brutal crackdown on student-led protests in 2024.

Since the verdict, Dhaka has been urging New Delhi to extradite her to face the law. She is not afraid to face any consequences, the sources said. “We are all prepared to welcome our leader back. Whatever instructions our leader give us, we will follow them,” Kazi Nasim Rupak, a member of the publicity sub-committee of the Awami League party, said.

“Our leader has already said that she is prepared for everything, and we are prepared for everything as well,” he said. The relations between India and Bangladesh witnessed major downturn after the interim Government headed by Muhammad Yunus came to power following the collapse of the Hasina Government in August, 2024.

The two sides-initiated efforts to stabilise the relations after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, accompanied by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, represented India at the inauguration of Tarique Rahman as the prime minister in Dhaka on February 17.

Rahman became the prime minister following his party’s landslide victory in the parliamentary polls. Hasina’s Awami League party was barred from contesting the polls.

In April, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman visited India as part of efforts to repair the strained bilateral ties following more than 18 months of heightened diplomatic tension. It was the first high-level visit to India by a senior member of the new Bangladesh Nationalist Party Government.

After the fall of the Hasina Government, the South Asian nation, with a population of around 175 million, has seen a growing shift toward religious conservatism amid a prolonged period of political instability.

The closing months of 2025 witnessed the rise of radical right-wing and overtly anti-India forces, raising concerns across the region.