Bangladesh has swiftly rejected a request for a new passport from ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who plans to return home in December from self-imposed exile in India, and has renewed its demand that New Delhi hand her over instead.

Hasina, 78, fled to India in August 2024 after a student-led uprising ended her long rule. Months after she fled, the interim government that took office revoked her passport and national identity card. On Monday 9 November, her lawyers wrote to the Bangladesh embassy in New Delhi asking for new documents to be issued, in what Reuters reported was her first formal communication with Bangladeshi authorities since she fled.

"No passport to a terrorist"

The government in Dhaka rejected the request in blunt terms. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir told reporters that Bangladesh does not provide a "passport to a terrorist" and urged India to hand her over under the two countries' extradition treaty. "She is a fugitive criminal. We have an active extradition treaty with India. We want her handed over," he said. Those descriptions are the government's own words, quoted as stated.

Hasina's lawyers, from London-based Matrix Chambers, addressed their letter to Preeti Rahman, Bangladesh's acting high commissioner in New Delhi. The letter asked for the papers to be issued expeditiously so that Hasina could return and surrender before a court. Her aides said a date for her return would be announced once the formalities were complete, and her Awami League party has said she will return in December, with documents or without.

Death sentence and extradition demand

Bangladesh's war crimes court sentenced Hasina to death in her absence in November 2025, finding her responsible for ordering the deadly crackdown on the 2024 protests. The United Nations has estimated that as many as 1,400 people were killed in the crackdown. Hasina has denied the charges from exile. Her party is now banned in Bangladesh.

India's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the latest developments, but in April it said it was examining Bangladesh's extradition request, citing a desire to engage constructively with the new government in Dhaka. Law Minister Md Asaduzzaman said on Sunday that Bangladesh would take all necessary legal steps to bring Hasina back under the prisoner exchange and extradition arrangements between the two countries.

In a telephone interview with Reuters in July, Hasina said the authorities in Bangladesh might arrest her on her return, or that she could be killed. No travel date has been fixed, no documents have been issued, and India has made no commitment to hand her over. The standoff leaves her planned December return unresolved, with Dhaka insisting that extradition, not a passport, is the route home.