NEW DELHI: Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared that she will return to Bangladesh in December despite the possibility of arrest or imprisonment, saying that fear would not stop her from serving her country.
Speaking through an audio message broadcast to a packed press club in New Delhi on Wednesday, Hasina said, “I may be detained, I may be sent to prison. But fear cannot decide my duty to the people.”
“I cannot stay away while my beloved countrymen are suffering,” she added.
Hasina, 78, has been living in India since fleeing Bangladesh by helicopter on August 5, 2024, when a student-led uprising ended her long tenure in power. The United Nations has said that up to 1,400 people were killed during the government’s crackdown on protesters before her removal.
In November 2025, a court in Dhaka convicted Hasina of crimes against humanity and sentenced her to death by hanging. Bangladesh has formally requested her extradition from India, while New Delhi has stated that the request remains “under examination.”
Hasina said she intends to return in December, the month Bangladesh celebrates its independence in 1971. Her announcement, however, sparked protests in Dhaka, where demonstrators reportedly burned her effigy.
Her latest remarks echoed statements she made in an interview in July, when she expressed her determination to return before the end of the year.
“I may be killed. I may be arrested. I may be sent to prison,” Hasina wrote in an email sent from hiding. “I am fully aware of my fate. Still, I want to go back because my people are calling me.”
The Bangladeshi government has said that Hasina would receive due legal process in all cases against her if she returns to the country.
Rights groups have long accused Hasina’s former administration of widespread human rights abuses, including the killing of political opponents, suppression of opposition parties, manipulation of the judiciary, and conducting unfair elections.
Authorities in Bangladesh have also barred local media outlets from broadcasting her latest address.
