Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister of Bangladesh ousted in a mass uprising in 2024, has told The Associated Press she remains committed to returning to the country from exile in India next month, despite a death sentence hanging over her.
“If death is my destiny, I would rather die on the soil of my own country, among my own people,” Hasina said in written answers to questions submitted by the news agency last week, which she answered on Wednesday. “So, I will return to Bangladesh. That decision has not changed.”
Hasina fled to India in August 2024 after weeks of student-led protests ended her 15-year rule, and she has lived in exile there ever since. In November 2025, a Bangladeshi special tribunal sentenced her to death in absentia for crimes against humanity, finding her responsible for ordering the crackdown on protesters that left hundreds dead and thousands injured. A United Nations report put the death toll at nearly 1,400. Hasina denies any wrongdoing, has rejected the tribunal’s verdict and challenged the legitimacy of the trial.
She first announced in August that she intended to return in December, the month Bangladesh marks its victory in the 1971 Liberation War. She has not said how she plans to travel from India, and she could face arrest the moment she arrives. Bangladesh has repeatedly sought her extradition; India has declined to hand her over.
“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,” she told the AP.
After her ouster, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus led an interim administration for 18 months. In February, Tarique Rahman — son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and a longtime rival of Hasina — swept to power in a landslide election held under Yunus’s administration. Hasina’s Awami League was barred from contesting the vote and remains banned, with senior leaders arrested or driven into exile.
Hasina alleged that at least 20,000 party members have been killed since August 2024, with thousands more arrested, tortured or forced into hiding, and supporters losing homes, businesses and livelihoods. That figure is her own claim and has not been independently verified. “There is no normal political or democratic environment,” she said, accusing the authorities of systematically suppressing the party. Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have criticised Rahman’s government over assaults on civil and political rights; the government says the arrests involve specific charges.
Asked whether she expected the United States and India to press Bangladesh to ensure her safe return, Hasina said she sought no foreign protection. “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,” she said. She also voiced concern that hard-line elements had grown more confident in the current political environment. The press wing of the prime minister’s office did not respond to the AP’s request for comment.
Sources: Associated Press, “Bangladesh’s ousted premier Hasina says she will return from exile in December at any cost” (5 November 2026) — https://www.guardonline.com/news/world/bangladeshs-ousted-premier-hasina-says-she-will-return-from-exile-in-december-at-any-cost/article_f4e79131-b4be-5c61-9fa9-36b63ee51a17.html
