Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s former prime minister, has asked for a passport and National Identity Card as she pursues her stated plan to return from India in December, Reuters reported Monday.
Hasina told Reuters she intends to return and surrender before a court. Her aides said they would set a date once the remaining formalities are complete. She has reaffirmed the plan despite her sentence, as EconoTimes previously reported.
In November 2025, a Bangladeshi war-crimes tribunal sentenced Hasina to death in absentia, ruling that she ordered a deadly crackdown on student-led protests in 2024. She denies the charges.
Reuters said it reviewed a letter from London-based Matrix Chambers addressed to Preeti Rahman, Bangladesh’s acting high commissioner in New Delhi. The lawyers ask the embassy to issue Hasina a passport and National Identity Card (NID), citing her Bangladeshi nationality and the country’s obligations under international human rights instruments. The letter says her existing passport and NID had reportedly been revoked by the interim government and other authorities, and asks officials to process the applications promptly.
Hasina’s Awami League party was banned after she left power. Reuters reported that a return could deepen political divisions in Bangladesh, while potentially improving its strained ties with India, where Hasina has lived since leaving the country. Many of her party colleagues have been jailed or entered self-imposed exile in India and elsewhere.
Reuters said its requests to Rahman in Delhi and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s spokespeople in Dhaka had not received an immediate response.
