No ordinary passport or travel pass will be issued to bring death-row convict and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina back from India; she must be returned under the existing extradition treaty, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday (5 November) at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka while seeing off a Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Central Committee International Department delegation led by Minister Liu Haixing, Kobir responded to questions about Hasina’s possible return.
He described Hasina as a fugitive, a flagged terrorist, and a criminal. “Has she come to visit her in-laws’ home in Rangpur that we should give her a passport so she can return with it?” he asked. “We have an extradition treaty with India. This treaty exists to catch terrorists and criminals. A passport is not needed to seize a terrorist criminal — a judicial process is required.”
Kobir abir added that the fleeing terrorist, who he said had killed thousands of people before fleeing, could not be treated as an ordinary commercial traveller. “We want her handover. Under the extradition treaty between the Bangladesh and Indian governments, this criminal must be handed over.”
This stance comes amid fresh statements from Hasina herself. In recent interviews, including an email exchange with the Associated Press responding on Wednesday, the former prime minister has reiterated her vow to return to Bangladesh in December “at any cost,” despite facing a death sentence in absentia.
“If death is my destiny, I would rather die on the soil of my own country, among my own people,” she said. “So, I will return to Bangladesh. That decision has not changed.”
She told the AP she is fully aware of the risks: “I know that I may be arrested when I return. I may be imprisoned, tortured or even killed. … But I cannot spend the rest of my life watching my people suffer from a distance.”
She added that she does not need the “blessing of a foreign power” to return to her own country, and that her return is not about reclaiming power but about standing with the people of Bangladesh. She said she intends to announce the specific date, time, and point of entry in due course, and has previously linked the timing to December as Bangladesh’s “Victory Month.”
Similar commitments have appeared in earlier interviews with outlets including India Today, Reuters, and Hindustan Times, in which she has said it is her responsibility to return and that fear will not stop her.
Separately, Kobir commented on a planned tripartite corridor involving China, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. If implemented, he said, the entire region would become an important commercial hub. Dhaka is keen to join the regional corridor, but a permanent solution to the Rohingya crisis is needed first.
He expressed hope that Liu Haixing’s three-day visit would further deepen and energise bilateral and strategic relations between China and Bangladesh. Liu Haixing and the CPC delegation left Dhaka on Thursday after completing their visit.