Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has requested a new passport and national identity card so she can return from self-imposed exile in India, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The move is her first formal communication of this kind since she fled in August 2024 and marks the clearest practical step yet toward her stated plan to return in December.
Her London-based lawyers at Matrix Chambers wrote to Preeti Rahman, acting high commissioner at Bangladesh’s embassy in Delhi, asking that a new passport and National Identity Card be issued “expeditiously.”
They cited the reported revocation of her existing documents by Bangladeshi authorities, her Bangladeshi nationality, and obligations under international human rights instruments.
The request follows Hasina’s recent email interview with The Associated Press, in which she reaffirmed that she would return to Bangladesh in December regardless of the risks. “If death is my destiny, I would rather die on the soil of my own country, among my own people,” she told the AP. “So, I will return to Bangladesh. That decision has not changed.”
She added that she was fully aware of the dangers: “I know that I may be arrested when I return. I may be imprisoned, tortured or even killed. I am fully aware of those possibilities. But I cannot spend the rest of my life watching my people suffer from a distance.” Hasina also said she was not seeking help or diplomatic pressure from India, the United States, or any other country. “I value friendship and cooperation with all nations. That has always been our foreign policy. But I do not need the blessing of a foreign power to return to my own country.”
Hasina, who ruled Bangladesh for roughly 15 years until a student-led uprising forced her from power in 2024, was sentenced to death in absentia by a Bangladeshi war-crimes tribunal in November 2025 for crimes against humanity related to the crackdown on protesters. She has denied the charges. Her Awami League party remains banned, and Dhaka has repeatedly sought her extradition from India under a bilateral treaty; New Delhi has so far declined to hand her over.
Bangladeshi officials have previously dismissed the idea that Hasina needs new travel documents, arguing that her return should occur through formal extradition rather than voluntary travel. An aide to Hasina described the passport request as “a significant step toward her homecoming” and said she remains determined to return by December.
The developments raise the prospect of fresh political and legal tensions in Bangladesh, where Hasina’s party is sidelined and the government under Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has faced criticism from rights groups over arrests and restrictions on political activity.