Ousted Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina requested on Monday a new passport and identity card so she can return from self-imposed exile in India, according to a letter seen by Reuters, her first such communication since fleeing in 2024, Reuters report.
The request marks the clearest step by Hasina to act on her plan to return to Bangladesh in December, more than two years after a deadly uprising ended her long rule, raising the prospect of fresh political and legal tensions in a country where her party is now banned, the report said.
She has told Reuters she plans to return to surrender before a court, and her aides said on Monday the date would be announced once various formalities were completed. Bangladesh's war-crimes court sentenced her to death in November last year in her absence for ordering a deadly crackdown on the student-led uprising, though she has denied the charges from exile.
"In view of the reported revocation of her existing Bangladeshi passport and National Identity Card (NID) by the Interim Government and other authorities, I respectfully request that you take the necessary steps to issue a new Bangladeshi passport and National Identity Card for our client," Hasina's lawyers at London-based Matrix Chambers wrote to Preeti Rahman, acting high commissioner at Bangladesh's embassy in Delhi.
The letter asked for the applications to be processed "expeditiously" on the basis of her Bangladeshi nationality and in accordance with "obligations arising under international human rights instruments".
Rahman in Delhi and spokespeople for Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in Dhaka did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters said.
On Thursday, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said Bangladesh wants Sheikh Hasina to be handed over under the existing extradition treaty with India, dismissing suggestions that she would require a passport or other travel documents to return.
“We want Hasina to be handed over. She will be handed over. She is a terrorist. She is a fugitive. There is an active extradition treaty between Bangladesh and India,” he told reporters.
The state minister made the remarks while responding to questions at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport after seeing off a visiting Chinese delegation led by Liu Haixing, minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.