Sheikh Hasina plans December 2026 return to Bangladesh: The ousted former PM, in exile in India and facing a death sentence for her alleged role in the 2024 protests, told Reuters she intends to return voluntarily with Awami League colleagues to face justice and revive her party. 

Political reactions in Bangladesh: The BNP government views it as a potential “trap” to incite unrest; opposition figures like Shafiqur Rahman and Nahid Islam have mixed or hostile responses, while Hasina continues organizing the banned Awami League online. 

Implications for India-Bangladesh ties: Hasina’s return could complicate or help mend strained relations; analysts urge strategic autonomy, balanced diplomacy, and addressing mutual concerns (e.g., Teesta water, immigration) to foster cooperation.

Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, currently living in exile in India and facing a death sentence back home for her alleged role in the deaths of 1400 agitators demanding her ouster, has said that she plans to return to Bangladesh in December. She told Reuters in New Delhi earlier this week that, upon her return, she would expose her “farcial” trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).   

“They may arrest me on my return, they may even kill me. Still, I have to go. My party leaders and workers are being subjected to tremendous repression. If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil, where my parents are buried and where their blood was shed.”

Her return could sharpen political divisions in Bangladesh, as she has been a polarising figure for decades. But the return could also enable the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government in Dhaka to repair strained relations with India that had supported Hasina’s Awami League government. 

The Interim Government from August 2025 to February 2026, headed by Dr Muhammad Yunus and the successor Tarique Rahman-led BNP government had written to New Delhi multiple times seeking Hasina’s extradition. But New Delhi would stonewall the request.

However, relations between New Delhi and Dhaka began to warm up after February 2026, when the Yunus government, installed by the agitating students and the radical Jamaat-i-Islami, resigned following fresh elections. 

It is said that New Delhi had a hand in the re-emergence of the BNP as an alternative to Yunus and his backers, the student-led National Citizens Party, and Jamaat-e-Islami. The BNP, like the Awami........

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