FORMER BANGLADESH PRIME MINISTER Sheikh Hasina is back on the news as she sought a new Bangladeshi passport and National Identity Card from the country’s diplomatic mission in New Delhi, which has been rejected by the Bangladesh government, reiterating its stand on extraditing Hasina back to Bangladesh by the Indian authorities.
This latest development comes amid Hasina’s stated intention to return to Bangladesh in December 2026, nearly two years after she fled the country followed by a student-led uprising that ended her rule.
See Also: Bangladesh Court Sentences Ex-PM Sheikh Hasina to Death for 2024 Crackdown
In a news report published by Reuters on November 9, 2026, Hasina’s lawyers at London’s Matrix chambers wrote to Bangladesh's acting high commissioner in New Delhi, Preeti Rahman, requesting her to issue fresh travel and identity documents for their client.
Responding to the request, the Bangladesh government has rejected the plea, and maintained that Hasina be extradited to Bangladesh, rather than the issuance of a new passport.
Bangladesh’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said the country will not issue a passport or National Identity Card to Hasina, stressing over the fact that she is a national fugitive.
Speaking to the journalists at the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 9, 2026, Kobir stated that Bangladesh wants Hasina to be handed over by India under the conditions of the existing extradition treaty between the two countries.
Furthermore, he also questioned the legal basis of the passport application, arguing that the government did not consider it an appropriate route for a person facing criminal proceedings and a sentence in Bangladesh to apply for a passport.
Hasina’s counsel, Matrix Chambers, has written a letter to Preeti Rahman — the acting high commissioner at Bangladesh’s embassy in New Delhi. The letter noted that: “In view of the reported revocation of her existing Bangladeshi passport and National Identity Card by the government and other authorities, I respectfully request that you take the necessary steps to issue a new Bangladeshi passport and National Identity card for our client,” reported news agency Reuters.
According to the news outlet The Daily sun, the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi received an email from Matrix Chamber on November 9, 2026, and forwarded it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka for further steps.
According to the diplomatic sources of the news outlet, the email did not contain any authorization document, which attributed to the fact that Hasina had personally approved the application.
Similarly, the news was also reported by Prothom Alo — a prominent Bangladesh news outlet — which noted that diplomatic sources in Dhaka could not confirm whether the application had been made with Hasina’s explicit authorization.
The Bangladesh government has repeatedly sought Hasina’s extradition from India since she fled the country in August 2024. It has also been a major thorn in India-Bangladesh ties, that has led to diplomatic distance being witnessed between the two neighbours.
The Bangladesh authorities, hence, have categorically rejected Hasina’s appeal for a passport and National Identity Card. Speaking to The Daily Star, Minister Humaiun Kobir stated that the country did not issue passports to terrorists and fugitives, and wanted Hasina to be extradited back to the country to face the legal consequences of her actions.
This entire development comes against the backdrop of a political upheaval that dethroned her rule in Bangladesh, in August 2024. Years of dissatisfaction against the corruption in government-services, alongside other lacunas that marked Hasina’s long-drawn rule in Bangladesh, the people of the country, particularly its youth led a mass-uprising that culminated into the fall of the government.
There was immense opposition to her government, and a mass demonstration against Hasina rocked Bangladesh for a major part of 2024. Hasina’s government, too, responded brutally, with Muhammad Yunus — the face of the interim government and a Nobel laureate — claiming that nearly 1,400 people died during the unrest.
Against this backdrop, the government in Bangladesh had been steadfast in their stance on Hasina, and has publicly stated their intentions to put her on trial in Bangladesh, with repeated demands to its Indian counterpart to extradite Hasina back to the country.
[Rh/AR/RS]
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