Ousted Sheikh Hasina seeks new Bangladeshi passport ahead of December return

The application

Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh's ousted former prime minister, has applied for a new passport and national identity card, according to several Awami League leaders who spoke to BBC Bangla. She has lived in India since fleeing on 5 August 2024, and the request is the clearest sign yet that she intends to act on her plan to return. Reuters also reported the application on Monday morning. The request was sent through Matrix Chambers, a London law firm, and BBC Bangla says it has obtained a copy.

Lawyers' letter and passport status

Hasina's lawyers wrote to acting high commissioner Priti Rahman in Delhi asking for a new passport and ID card, according to BBC Bangla. The Associated Press reported a letter emailed to Bangladesh's top diplomat in London, and the lawyers say the interim government and other authorities have revoked her existing Bangladeshi passport and ID card. The interim government cancelled her diplomatic and ordinary passports at the end of August 2024 and later revoked the passports of several senior Awami League leaders. Her return plan brought the document issue to the fore, because she currently holds no valid passport.

Dhaka's response

Saidur Rahman, press minister at the high commission, told BBC Bangla that the mission had received an email from Matrix Chambers and did not know whether the application was genuine. The mission said it had also heard about the application through media reports before it had confirmed anything itself. The mission then forwarded the email to the foreign ministry. Junior foreign minister Humayun Kobir called the passport request ridiculous at a briefing on Monday and described Hasina as an accused person, according to BBC Bangla. Kobir put the government's position plainly in remarks to reporters in Dhaka:

“We want Hasina to be handed over. She will be handed over.”

India has declined to hand her over under the extradition treaty that Bangladesh is citing.

Sentence and return plan

A war crimes tribunal sentenced Hasina to death in absentia in November 2025 for ordering the crackdown on student protests in 2024. The United Nations has said nearly 1,400 people were killed in those protests. Hasina denies any wrongdoing, has rejected the verdict and has challenged the legitimacy of the trial. She told Reuters that she intends to surrender before a court in Bangladesh, and her aides said the date would be announced once formalities are complete. Her aide Abu Obaidha Arin told the AP that she is determined to return by December.

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

Political backdrop

Hasina was prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2024, and she is the daughter of Bangladesh's founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Awami League has been banned, and it was barred from contesting an election held in February under the interim government. Tarique Rahman, the son of a longtime archrival of Hasina, came to power in a landslide. Hasina still has support among some sections of the population of 127 million. Her return could revive legal and political disputes and could ease relations with India, which deteriorated when she fled there in 2024.