Condemned ex-PM Hasina plans return to Bangladesh

Dhaka [Bangladesh], July 12: Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says she plans to return to the country from exile in December, despite a death sentence passed during her two-year stay in India.
The 78-year-old former leader told the Reuters news agency in an interview published on Friday that she plans to return to Bangladesh alongside senior officials from her Awami League to launch a challenge to the legal shuttering of the party. Her return could jolt efforts to stabilise Bangladeshi politics following the 2024 revolt against her increasingly authoritarian rule, which saw her flee after a deadly crackdown failed to quell a student-led uprising.
"They may arrest me on my return, they may even kill me," Hasina said during the telephone interview from the Indian capital, to which she fled two years ago. "Still, I have to go. If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil." The former prime minister said that her return is a coordinated effort to challenge the legal actions taken against her party, the Awami League, which has been banned.
Source: Qatar Tribune