After being ousted by anti-government protests and going into exile in India, former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced her intention to return in December. Her declaration to come back, after being sentenced to death on charges of ordering a bloody crackdown on protesters, is heightening tensions in Bangladesh politics.

AP reported that on the 5th (local time), the second anniversary of the ouster of the authoritarian Hasina regime, the former prime minister attended a commemorative event in New Delhi, India, online.

He said, “I may be detained, and I may go to prison. But I cannot let fear decide my duty to the people,” adding, “I will be with the people in December.” He also said, “I cannot look away as my beloved compatriots suffer.”

This was her first public appearance since her downfall. She fled to India after being toppled by youth-led anti-government protests in 2024 that opposed a civil service quota for descendants of independence fighters. Last year, a Bangladeshi court sentenced her to death on charges of ordering a bloody crackdown on protesters.

In an email interview with AFP last month, the former prime minister said that even at the risk of death, she wanted to return home because “my people are calling me.”

The government of Bangladesh pushed back. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that day that Hasina's remarks on the anniversary of the anti-government protests were “an insult to sovereignty” and “an insult to the victims of the protests.” It added, “The people of Bangladesh, in the spirit of the ‘July Revolution’, have firmly vowed never to return to the dark era of fascism,” and declared, “Hasina will never set foot on the political stage of Bangladesh again.”

It also expressed displeasure toward the Indian government over the live broadcast of the speech. The statement said it was “outraged that Hasina, convicted on massacre charges and on the run, was allowed to communicate with the media via a live broadcast from New Delhi,” and warned that the matter could damage bilateral relations.

The Indian government stated that it was not involved in the speech.

The two countries have remained at odds since the former prime minister went into exile. A Bangladeshi court requested her extradition, but the Indian government maintained only that it would review the matter. According to the local daily Prothom Alo, Bangladesh directly raised the issue of the former prime minister during talks with the Indian foreign minister on the 29th of last month. It also requested cooperation to prevent the former prime minister and her supporters from making political statements on Indian soil.

Her return is expected to be a political test for the government of Tarique Rahman, which took office early this year. Bangladesh went through an interim government under Muhammad Yunus and saw a change of power through a general election in February, the first in about 20 years. The Ministry of Justice of Bangladesh said it would “exercise the powers granted by law” and announced that the former prime minister would be arrested immediately upon her return.

The United Nations estimated that up to 1,400 people were killed in 2024 as a result of the government's bloody crackdown on the protests. A rally to mark the second anniversary of the protests was held in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, that day. Reuters reported that participants burned an effigy of the former prime minister.