6 min readNew DelhiAug 6, 2026 04:20 AM IST
Declaring that her “life moved beyond calculations of personal safety long ago”, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in India ever since her ouster in August 2024, said Wednesday that she plans to return to her country, stand with its people and help improve their lives.
Asked when she plans to return, Hasina referred to the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war and said, “December is our victory month, so I want to go back in the month of December.”
She faces a death sentence in Bangladesh and her party, the Awami League, has been banned.
Addressing a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi via an audio link, she said, “Whatever fate awaits me, I will return to my people. I cannot stay away while my beloved countrymen are suffering. I know I may be detained. I may be sent to prison. They may try to enforce verdicts in fabricated cases, but fear cannot decide my duty to the people. My life moved beyond calculations of personal safety long ago… I know that they may put me in jail or they may kill me.”
“There were 19 assassination attempts against me… I am not worried about my own future, I am worried about the future of Bangladesh. I want to return because the people deserve security, development, prosperity and peace,” she said.
“They deserve a state that protects them, an economy that gives them opportunity, and democracy that gives them rights. My return and the return of the family to the democratic process is not about power. It is about putting Bangladesh back on the right track. It is about reviving the country’s path of development, progress, secularism and stability. I want to return to Bangladesh for one purpose: to stand beside the people and help improve their lives. People are the source of all power. I believe in them. I trust them. I love them and I will return to them,” Hasina said.
Reacting sharply to the event, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday: “Bangladesh is outraged that the absconding convicted genocider Sheikh Hasina was allowed this evening to engage in live interaction with the media in New Delhi where she and her henchmen launched venomous vitriol against the State of Bangladesh and her people.”
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“Dhaka deeply regrets that in spite of concerns conveyed a priori to the Government of India about the likely ramifications of this event on the reset of our bilateral relations, this public event was permitted to be held,” the statement added.
It said that while Dhaka wishes to maintain a constructive, mutually beneficial and forward-looking relationship with India “…allowing her (Hasina) the opportunity to openly interact with the media under any pretext is deeply hurtful to our people’s sentiment and detrimental to the development of harmonious bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India.”
On Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs, moving to address concerns in Dhaka, had made it clear that it was neither involved in nor was it going to endorse any view aired during Hasina’s media interaction.
Hasina’s son praises India
On how the Indian government had been treating her, Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who had been an advisor in her government, said, “With regards to how they are treating her, they are treating her like a head of state. They are treating her very well. She is staying with the full services and security of the Head of State… Prime Minister Modi’s government has shown her the utmost respect, and for that I am eternally grateful.”
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Asked whether his mother had any regret for the killing of students and protesters in July-August 2024, Joy said, “Look, this question of regret and apologies has been raised, but you see the Yunus regime and the BNP regime has continued… They have legalized killings – the killings of police officers, the killings of civilians, the killings of Awami League members… And you have heard my mother express that this was a violent situation. So, if one set of killings is legal, then how does the question of apology arise? Why does it arise?”
Hasina called upon the “international community and all the friends of Bangladesh to stand with the people of Bangladesh in their struggle for democracy, justice, and peace”.
“Bangladesh’s crisis is not only a domestic crisis; it affects regional peace, security, trade, development and human dignity… a stable Bangladesh matters for South Asia, for the Bay of Bengal, for development partners, and for all countries that believe in democracy, rule of law. The next decade can be a decade of recovery and renewal, but only if democracy is restored, and the people are allowed to decide their own future,” she said.
She also made a list of demands: “The ban on the Awami League must be lifted, political prisoners must be released, false cases must be dropped, freedom of speech must be restored, media must be protected and judicial independence must be guaranteed.”
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“Law enforcement agencies must serve the people, not those who use power for revenge. These are not demands for one party only. These are necessary steps to save Bangladesh,” she said.