DHAKA/NEW DELHI: India-Bangladesh ties may experience fresh turbulence with ousted PM Sheikh Hasina‘s legal counsel formally requesting a new passport and national identity card from the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi to facilitate her return to the country. While the high commission said it wasn’t sure if the request was genuine as it was not backed by supporting documents, Dhaka responded by declaring it doesn’t issue passports to “convicted terrorists” and reiterating its demand for Hasina’s extradition.India, however, sees the passport request as a matter purely between the government in Dhaka and a Bangladeshi national, one that should not be conflated with her extradition issue. The Indian government maintains that Hasina’s extradition is subject to established legal and judicial processes under the bilateral extradition treaty.Hasina had earlier announced that she planned to ‘return’ to Bangladesh in December. However, India is likely to distance itself from Hasina’s passport bid – described by Bangladesh authorities as a political stunt – as it believes this will be Dhaka’s call entirely.“She has fled after killing people. One who has fled, how would she come? How would a terrorist come? There’s an extradition treaty. Handover would be sought through the treaty,” said Bangladesh’s state minister for foreign affairs Humaiun Kobir.Kobir said there is no scope now for staging drama in the name of returning to the country using the passport issue.“If she truly wishes to return, there is a specific legal process for doing so. An extradition treaty exists between Bangladesh and India; she should ask the Indian government to hand her over to Bangladesh under the terms of that treaty. She should return, surrender to the court, and serve her sentence,” he said.Political insiders in Dhaka say the government and opposition party Jamaat do not actually want Hasina’s return at this moment and that is why the government is unwilling to accept her voluntary return and tagging extradition treaty issue which is time-consuming and complicated.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.Hasina requested a new passport on Monday to facilitate her return from exile two years after she was ousted in a mass uprising.In a letter, emailed to the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, Hasina’s counsel urged the top diplomat to take necessary action to provide her with a passport and national identity card.The letter, sent by London-based law firm Matrix Chambers, asked the mission for the application to be processed “expeditiously” on the basis of Hasina’s Bangladeshi nationality and in accordance with “obligations arising under international human rights instruments.”
The letter, sent via email and addressed to Acting High Commissioner Preeti Rahman, was shared with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Hasina’s application is ridiculous, State Minister Kobir said, criticising the British law firm over its involvement in the matter.“Know your client. Don’t run after her looted money from the people of Bangladesh. Exercise some ethical and moral boundaries. And if you don’t have those boundaries, you will be shamed all over the world,” he said.“If death is my destiny, I would rather die on the soil of my own country, among my own people,” Hasina told AP in response to questions by email. “So, I will return to Bangladesh. That decision has not changed.”