'Living freely in Delhi, plan to remain in India': Sheikh Hasina in her first interview after exile

Supporters of Awami League, of which Hasina is the president, will boycott the national election in 2026, she says and terms the ban on her party 'unjust' and 'self-defeating'

Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to New Delhi in August 2024 following student-led protests against government job quotas, has said she plans to remain in India.

Hasina, whose father and three brothers were killed in a 1975 military coup while she and her sister were abroad, said in a recent interview with Reuters that she lives freely in Delhi but remains cautious given her family’s violent history.

The supporters of Awami League, of which Hasina is the president, will be boycotting the national election taking place in 2026, she said. This is the ex-leader's first media appearance since her exile after governing Bangladesh for over a decade.

“The ban on the Awami League is not only unjust, it is self-defeating,” she said. “The next government must have electoral legitimacy. Millions of people support the Awami League, so as things stand, they will not vote. You cannot disenfranchise millions of people if you want a political system that works.”

An interim government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, is governing Bangladesh since Hasina’s ouster, and it has pledged to hold elections next February.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League have controlled Bangladesh's political scenario. The Election Commission suspended the Awami League’s registration in May, and the Yunus-led government banned all party activities, citing national security threats and war crimes investigations into senior Awami leaders.

“We are not asking Awami League voters to support other parties,” Hasina said. “We still hope common sense will prevail and we will be allowed to contest the election ourselves.”

Hasina has been credited with reshaping Bangladesh’s economy, but was accused of suppressing dissent and violating human rights. She won a fourth consecutive term in 2024. That election was boycotted by the main Opposition, whose top leaders were either jailed or in exile.

The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh's domestic war crimes court, has concluded proceedings against Hasina, who faces charges of crimes against humanity over the violent crackdown on student protests in mid-2024.

According to a United Nations report, up to 1,400 people may have been killed during the protests between July 15 and August 5, 2024, with thousands more injured — most from gunfire by security forces — in what was the worst violence in Bangladesh since its 1971 war of independence.

Prosecutors also allege Hasina oversaw enforced disappearances and torture of Opposition activists through clandestine detention centres run by security agencies.

Hasina denied the charges, saying she was not personally involved in the use of lethal force or other alleged crimes.

“These proceedings are a politically motivated charade,” she said. “They’ve been brought by kangaroo courts, with guilty verdicts a foregone conclusion. I was mostly denied prior notice or any meaningful opportunity to defend myself.”

A verdict is expected on November 13.

(With Reuters inputs)