BANGLADESH swiftly rejected this week a request for a new passport from deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 78, who plans to return home in December from self-imposed exile in India.
Hasina fled to India in Aug 2024 after a deadly student-led uprising ended a long tenure that saw her widely accused of crushing dissent and dismantling democratic checks and balances, accusations she denies.
Many opposition leaders lived abroad during that period, and the opposition often boycotted elections.
A Bangladeshi court sentenced her to death in November last year for ordering a deadly crackdown on protesters in 2024 that the UN estimates killed as many as 1,400.
