Sheikh Hasina Passport Request Turned Down By Bangladesh Before Her Planned Return

NEW DELHI, Nov 10 – Bangladesh has rejected former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s request for a new passport, delivering a swift refusal to the 78-year-old leader, who hopes to return home from exile in India next month.

Hasina submitted the request on Monday for both a new passport and a national identity card. It was her first such application since fleeing the country in 2024.

The government in Dhaka said no within hours.

Her lawyers, at the London firm Matrix Chambers, wrote to the acting head of Bangladesh’s mission in New Delhi. They noted that her old passport and identity card had been revoked by the interim government that took power after she fell. They asked for new ones to be issued “expeditiously.”

They based the request on her Bangladeshi nationality. They also cited the country’s duties under international human rights law.

But the government said it does not give a passport to a terrorist. Humaiun Kobir, the state minister for foreign affairs, said Bangladesh wants India to hand her over under the extradition treaty between the two countries.

“She is a fugitive criminal,” Kobir said.

He said she could not be treated like an ordinary traveler coming home to visit her in-laws. He made a similar point last week, when he said there was no need for a passport to bring back someone wanted by the courts.

Hasina governed Bangladesh for 20 years across multiple terms. Her long rule came to an end in August 2024, when a deadly student-led uprising forced her from power. She subsequently fled to India.

Critics accused her of crushing dissent and tearing down democratic checks while in power. She denies that.

In November last year, a war crimes court in Bangladesh sentenced her to death in her absence. It found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on the protests in 2024. The United Nations estimates that as many as 1,400 people were killed. Hasina has denied the charges.

Her party, the Awami League, was once the largest in the country. It is now banned. That ban kept it out of the general election in February, which brought the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to power. Many of her party colleagues are in jail or living abroad.

The new prime minister is Tarique Rahman. He is the son of Khaleda Zia, Hasina’s biggest rival. He, too, lived in exile in London while Hasina was in power.

Still, Hasina says she is going home. She told Reuters in July that she plans to return and surrender to a court. She said she might be arrested, or even killed.

But she said she wanted to go back on her own: “If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil,” Hasina said.

She said it was important to stand with party workers who are struggling without their leaders.

Her aides said on Monday that a date will be announced once the paperwork is done. The Awami League has said she will return in December, with papers or without them. It has not said how she would travel if she is refused. The long border between the two countries is partly open, and people often cross it illegally.

India has not commented on the latest request. In April, its foreign ministry said it was looking at Bangladesh’s request to extradite her. It said it wanted to work with the new government and build stronger ties.

Those ties have been strained since India took her in. Some say her leaving India could help mend them.

Political analysts say Dhaka does not want her return to turn into a show that could fire up her supporters. She still has backing in parts of the country. A large public rally for her could stir fresh tension and even lead to unrest, they say.

Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest garment exporter, is still working to recover from the turmoil that followed Hasina’s fall.

This year’s election has brought a degree of stability, but the conflict in the Middle East has driven up living costs and contributed to serious shortages of fuel and electricity.