Hasina wants ban on Awami League lifted

Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday that a ban on her Awami League party should be lifted and reiterated that she would return to her country in December, challenging the new government of her rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Speaking during a media interaction hosted by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia in New Delhi, Hasina said she remained determined to return despite facing the possibility of imprisonment or worse.

"I will return to my people," Hasina said, adding that she would reveal the exact date and details of her return when the time was right.

"I know that they may put me in jail or they may kill me, anything may happen, but still I have to go back," she said.

The event, held on the second anniversary of her 2024 ouster, was Hasina's first media interaction since she fled Bangladesh. Although she had been expected to appear by video, she delivered only an audio message from behind a blank screen. It was not immediately clear why she did not appear on camera, unlike several Awami League leaders and her son, who spoke earlier.

There was no media coverage of the event in Bangladesh, though it was available on social media. It was not immediately clear how many people watched the address, although many Bangladeshis shared links to the speech and commented on it across social media.

While Hasina spoke, protesters in Dhaka burned an effigy of her. She alleged that the anti-government protests evolved from a movement over public sector job quotas into a coordinated campaign driven by organised violence, covert direction and propaganda aimed at removing her government from power and undermining the constitutional order.

Hasina also said Bangladesh's economy had deteriorated sharply since her removal from office, alleging that growth had slowed, investment and job creation had weakened, and that more than 20 million people had become unemployed, while economic gains made during her tenure were being reversed.