Ousted former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared that she will return to Bangladesh before the end of the year, dismissing a death sentence handed down against her in absentia and describing the verdict as illegal, unconstitutional and politically motivated.
Hasina, 78, made the announcement during an interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV, marking the first time she has publicly set a timeframe for returning to Bangladesh. She has been living in India since August 2024 after a student-led uprising forced her government from power. Asked whether she intended to return despite facing a death sentence, Hasina said she would overcome “every obstacle and every conspiracy” to return to her country this year.
The former prime minister said she was not intimidated by the sentence imposed against her and insisted that she did not fear death. Last November, a court in Dhaka sentenced Hasina to death after convicting her of inciting and ordering killings and failing to prevent atrocities during the unrest that led to the collapse of her administration in 2024.
Rejecting the court’s decision, Hasina accused Bangladesh’s judiciary of being used as an instrument of political revenge designed to eliminate the leadership of her Awami League party. She maintained that previous attempts to dismantle the party had failed and said current efforts would also be unsuccessful.
Hasina said her planned return was not motivated by personal political ambition but by what she described as a broader mission to restore political rights, democracy, the rule of law and the spirit of Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War. She argued that these objectives were central to her decision to return despite the legal proceedings against her.
Defending the Awami League, Hasina said the party remained firmly rooted in Bangladesh despite an official ban on its activities. She described the organisation as a political force deeply connected to the country’s history, identity and people, rejecting any suggestion that it could be eliminated through legal or political measures.
The restrictions on the Awami League were first imposed under the previous interim administration and remain in force under Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s government, which assumed office following the February elections.
Hasina also called on the government led by Tarique Rahman to restore what she described as a proper democratic environment. She urged authorities to lift the ban on the Awami League, withdraw what she characterised as false cases against party leaders, release political prisoners and permit peaceful political activity.
The government has defended the legal proceedings against Hasina and other members of her former administration, stating that the cases form part of broader efforts to ensure accountability for alleged crimes committed during the final months of her government. Hasina, however, has continued to reject the charges and the judicial process, maintaining that the proceedings are politically driven as she prepares for what she says will be her return to Bangladesh later this year.
Good morning, Sri Lanka Guardian.
Sheikh Hasina was not ousted from Bangladesh. It was the Washington administration forcefully and unlawfully removed HPM Sheikh Hasina through deep-seated camarilla from power on 5 August 2024 and sent her to exile in India by the Bangladesh Air Force helicopter with state honour.
The American Government committed this heinous crime because Sheikh Hasina boldly and patriotically refused to cede to their request to allow the sanctified land of Bangladesh, which we attained at the bay of blood in1971, for their geopolitical and economic interests.
Sheikh Hasina has not resigned from her Premiership. She is still the de facto and de jure HPM of Bangladesh.
Her political party the Awami League having 77 years of glorious legacy gave birth of Bangladesh in 1971 after 23 years horrific misrule by the Pakistani rulers perpetrated on our people.
Sheikh Hasina has been the most successful HPM of Bangladesh. She has made epic developments in all sector of Bangladesh during her 16 years glorified rule which is almost close to any wester nation.
She and her party have been banned infamously, unlawfully, criminally by the anti-Bangladesh liberation forces in ugly concert with the world’s most criminal country America. She has been awarded death punishment and lodged more than 600 cases against her to subdue with no valid grounds.
I emphatically say 98% brutal murders were foxily committed by the anti-Bangladesh liberation forces, mainly Jamaat-e-Islami mass murderers of 1971 but cunningly shifted the responsibility on the shoulder of HPM Sheikh Hasina in league with the American, Pakistani ISI, Turkish MIIT, et al.
If an independent international agency conducts an investigation on all these heinous matters and if the ring leaders of Jamaati butchers are taken into custody, interrogated them rigorously, the bald-faced truths must come to the public eyes to inflict them severe punishment. Sheikh Hasina shall come out from all deliberately concocted machinations like a great hero to reclaim Bangladesh from the present direful straits and place it to its grandeur position.
Bangladesh has been occupied by the anti-Bangladesh liberation forces in ugly concert with the world’s most criminal country America on 5 August 2024. Since then, the country has been bleeding profusely with no respite as yet.
Because of the Washington administration and their direful anti-Bangladesh mango-twigs colossal misdeeds, Bangladesh has now become a colony of America losing its hard-earned independence and sovereignty.
Since 5 August 2024 till today, America’s puppet governments have been ruling Bangladesh serving only the interests of the Washington administration.
She has not committed any crime. So, she has rightfully vowed to return to Bangladesh by this year. Her popularity has risen to the Himalayan status in Bangladesh. The mas people are eagerly waiting to receive her at HSJ Airport, Dhaka with due state honour.
Joy Bangla. Joy Bangabandhu. Joytu Sheikh Hasina.
—- Anwar A. Khan, a direct witness of the brutal birth of Bangladesh from the direful Pakistani military regime from a very close proximity in 1971 and a frontline Freedom Fighter of the 1971 war field to establish Bangladesh.