Bangladesh's ousted PM Hasina tells AP she will return from exile in December at any cost

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Nov 5, (AP): Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, ousted in a mass uprising in 2024, has told The Associated Press that she remains committed to returning to Bangladesh from exile in India next month, despite being sentenced to death over her government’s deadly crackdown on protesters. Hasina fled to India after student-led protests forced her from power and has remained there ever since.

In 2025, a Bangladeshi special tribunal 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 in a report that 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.

Bangladesh has repeatedly sought Hasina’s extradition, but India has declined to hand her over. She had first announced in August her intention to return in December. "If death is my destiny, I would rather die on the soil of my own country, among my own people,” she told The Associated Press in response to questions by email. "So, I will return to Bangladesh. That decision has not changed.”

Questions were submitted to her last week and she responded on Wednesday. Hasina, who was prime minister from 2009-2024, didn't disclose how she plans to return from India. She could face arrest upon arrival in Bangladesh. "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.

Following Hasina’s ouster, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge of an interim administration, leading the country for the next 18 months. In February, Tarique Rahman, son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and a longtime political rival of Hasina, swept to power in a landslide election held under Yunus’ administration.

Hasina’s Awami League party was barred from contesting the vote. Hasina’s planned return comes as her party faces an uncertain future amid a sweeping crackdown. The party 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, while thousands have been arrested, tortured or forced into hiding.

She said that supporters have also lost homes, businesses and livelihoods because of their political affiliations. "There is no normal political or democratic environment,” she said, accusing the authorities of systematically suppressing the party.