DHAKA — Deposed former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has made a bold declaration: she intends to return to her home country before the end of this year, even in the face of a death sentence issued against her while she remains abroad.
Hasina, 78, has been living in India since a student-led uprising brought down her government in August 2024. In a recent interview with Indian television network NDTV, she said no obstacle or conspiracy would stop her from going back.
“I want to say clearly: overcoming every obstacle and every conspiracy, I will return to my country this year,” she stated when pressed on whether she would return despite the death sentence hanging over her. It marked the first time she had publicly set a timeline for her return.
A court in Dhaka handed down the death sentence last November, convicting her of inciting killings, ordering violence, and failing to stop atrocities during the unrest that swept Bangladesh in 2024.
Hasina flatly rejected the verdict, accusing the country’s court system of being weaponized for political purposes. She described the judiciary as “an instrument of political revenge” designed to destroy the leadership of her Awami League party.
“I do not fear death,” she declared, adding that previous attempts to dismantle her party had ultimately failed — and would fail again.
She framed her planned return not as a personal political comeback, but as a mission to restore democratic rights, the rule of law, and the values of Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.
Despite a ban on the Awami League’s activities — restrictions first put in place by a previous interim administration and still enforced under Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s government, which came to power following February elections — Hasina insisted the party remains a powerful force.
“The Awami League is not a paper organisation but a political force rooted in the soil of Bengal, in the people of Bengal, in the history of Bengal and in the identity of the Bengali nation,” she said.
Hasina also called on the Tarique Rahman-led government to lift the ban on her party, drop what she characterized as fabricated charges against its leaders, free political prisoners, and allow peaceful political activity to resume.
In response, the government has defended the legal actions against her, saying the proceedings are part of a broader effort to hold accountable those responsible for alleged crimes committed during the final period of Hasina’s rule.
