Reuters reports Hasina plans to return, surrender

A Reuters report yesterday said ousted Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, facing a death sentence, told the news agency that she and her senior Awami League colleagues plan to return from exile in India around December and surrender to Bangladesh court.

She said she and members of her Awami League aim to return voluntarily to the country they fled two years ago, reported Reuters. “They may arrest me on my return, they may even kill me,” Hasina, 78, was quoted as saying in the nearly hour-long telephone interview late on Thursday and into yesterday.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

“Still, I have to go,” she said.

Bangladesh’s war-crimes court sentenced her in November to death in her absence for ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising. She has denied the charges from exile in India.

Bangladesh has repeatedly urged India to extradite her.

The crackdown that led to her downfall killed as many as 1,400 people, according to a UN report.

The Reuters report said this is the first time she has set out a timetable for her return and surrender. She also said other exiled Awami League leaders would do so. Among them, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also faces a death sentence.

Reuters said it could not contact the other party members or establish where they were.

The authorities in Dhaka “want to take me back, they are repeatedly sending letters to India seeking to have me sent back. I will go myself,” she was quoted as saying.

“Cases have been filed against almost all of our leaders and workers, and many of them are in hiding,” Hasina said. “So I said that this time I am returning home, and one day, all of you should come. All together, we will all surrender in court.”

Reuters said Hasina declined to give a date for her return or say exactly when she would surrender or to what court.

“I believe in justice, and I feel that once proceedings start, it will be clear to the people how farcical the court is and that I want to prove it.”

Hasina said she had not been in touch with Dhaka over her plans to return. She said she was not worried about jail time, noting that she had been arrested several times before.

She told Reuters threats on her life as crowds advanced towards her residence led her to flee.

“When a government works for a long time, mistakes can happen ... no government is above error,” she said. “But the right to judge the good and bad, the right and wrong of a government belongs to the people. I leave that judgment to the people.”

Hasina said she has held online meetings covering 125 of Bangladesh’s 300 parliamentary constituencies as part of efforts to reorganise the Awami League.