Bangladesh's ousted leader Sheikh Hasina appeals for a new passport to return from exile

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina requested a new passport Monday to facilitate her return from exile two years after she was ousted in a mass uprising.

The government has been seeking her extradition from India and earlier dismissed suggestions she needed new identification documents to return home. Hasina told The Associated Press in an interview this month that she would return to Bangladesh in December at any cost.

In a letter seen by The Associated Press that was emailed to Bangladesh's top diplomat in London, a counsel of Hasina urged the diplomat to take necessary action to provide her a passport and national identity card.

“This is a significant step toward her homecoming. Having had her documents revoked by the previous regime, Her Excellency looks forward to reclaiming her fundamental rights as a Bangladeshi citizen and receiving the necessary documents,” Abu Obaidha Arin, an aide to Hasina, told the AP.

“She is determined to return to Bangladesh by December, and she will undoubtedly return home,” he said.

It was not immediately possible to obtain comment from the Bangladesh government.

On Thursday, Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said Bangladesh wants Hasina to be handed over under an extradition treaty with India. India has declined to hand her over.

“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 in Dhaka.

Bangladesh's military sent Hasina to India after student-led protests forced her from power on Aug. 5, 2024. A special tribunal in 2025 sentenced her to death for crimes against humanity, ruling that she was responsible for ordering the crackdown, which left hundreds of people dead and thousands of others injured.

The United Nations has said nearly 1,400 people were killed. Hasina denies any wrongdoing. She also has rejected the tribunal’s verdict and challenged the legitimacy of the trial.

An interim government led Bangladesh after Hasina's ouster and held an election in February that Hasina’s Awami League party was barred from contesting.

Tarique Rahman, the son of a longtime archrival of Hasina, came to power in a landslide.