Bangladesh has formally protested Sheikh Hasina’s virtual addresses from Indian soil before, summoning New Delhi’s acting envoy last year after the ousted prime minister used one such broadcast to accuse Bangladesh’s interim leadership of turning the country into “a land of militants and terrorists.” Dhaka invoked that history this week as it pressed India for clarity over another livestreamed appearance Hasina plans to deliver Wednesday, warning that continued political activity from a fugitive risked damaging a bilateral relationship both governments have recently worked to repair.
Hasina, 78, is scheduled to address a virtual event hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi on August 5, alongside her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and other speakers. The date marks two years since student-led protests forced her from office and out of the country. The FCCSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Bangladeshi government’s objections, and India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond either.
Bangladesh’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shama Obaed Islam, told reporters late Monday that Dhaka had repeatedly raised concerns with New Delhi over Hasina and other Awami League figures making political statements from Indian territory, adding that India had previously signaled it did not expect fugitives to engage in political activity from its soil. “India has to be clear about its stance,” she said, while stressing that Wednesday’s event was not organized by the Indian government and that Dhaka would pursue the matter through diplomatic channels if necessary.
The request for clarity follows a pattern. After Hasina delivered a virtual address last year condemning the demolition of her father’s historic residence in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi neighborhood — a house tied to Bangladesh’s 1971 independence leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus summoned India’s acting high commissioner and lodged a formal note of protest over what it called her “provocative” remarks. Hasina had accused Yunus in that broadcast of plotting to kill her and her sister. The mob that tore down the house did so hours after her address aired.
Dhaka has sought Hasina’s extradition since shortly after her ouster, and Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal issued arrest warrants against her and several former officials over the deadly 2024 crackdown on protesters. A tribunal convicted her in absentia last November and sentenced her to death for crimes against humanity connected to that crackdown, which the United Nations has estimated killed as many as 1,400 people. Hasina has called the verdict legally void. Bangladesh’s law minister, M. Asaduzzaman, has said she would likely be arrested immediately if she set foot in the country, a warning that stands in tension with Hasina’s own statement to Reuters last month that she intends to return to Bangladesh in December alongside party colleagues to surrender to authorities.
India has not acted on the extradition request in the year since it was filed, and officials in Dhaka have said Hasina’s residency status in India is unrelated to that request. “We have requested India to return Sheikh Hasina as a Bangladeshi citizen. Her status in India has no relevance,” a Bangladesh foreign office spokesman said at an earlier briefing, adding that the government would not speculate on reports that New Delhi had extended her visa even as Dhaka revoked her passport along with those of dozens of others implicated in the crackdown.
The diplomatic friction comes as relations between the two countries have shown signs of a tentative thaw. Ties frayed sharply after Hasina’s fall in August 2024 but have improved since Tarique Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party government took office in February following a landslide election victory, with both sides signaling openness to expanded engagement and cooperation on trade and security matters. The Awami League itself remains barred from Bangladeshi politics: the interim government that preceded Rahman deregistered the party and suspended its activities last year, a ban officials have said will stay in place until the International Crimes Tribunal completes its cases, including Hasina’s. Islam’s remarks this week suggested that the broader improvement in ties with India remains conditional on how New Delhi handles Hasina’s continued political visibility from its territory, rather than settled.
Wednesday’s event will mark Hasina’s first substantial public appearance before international media since she fled to India in August 2024. Organizers have said she is expected to discuss her planned return and her assessment of Bangladesh’s political trajectory under the current government, a prospect that has already drawn warnings from Dhaka that her remarks could trigger renewed unrest at home, as they have in the past.
