‘I live freely, but cautiously in Delhi’: Sheikh Hasina vows not to leave India, warns of Bangladesh poll boycott

Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared that she has no plans to leave India, asserting she lives “freely but cautiously” in Delhi — a city that once sheltered her after her father’s assassination in 1975.

In rare interviews with Reuters and the UK Independent recently, Hasina issued a defiant warning that millions of voters would boycott the upcoming Bangladesh elections if her party, the Awami League, remains barred from participation. “The ban on the Awami League is not only unjust, it is self-defeating,” she said. “You cannot disenfranchise millions of people if you want a political system that works.”

The former premier — who fled to India on August 5, 2024, amid a mass uprising that toppled her government — told Reuters she “lives freely in Delhi but remains cautious given her family’s violent history.” A journalist from the agency reportedly saw her walking in Delhi’s Lodhi Garden, exchanging polite nods with passersby who recognized her.

Hasina left Dhaka on the advice of Bangladesh Army Chief Waker-Uz-Zaman, after tens of thousands of protesters marched toward her residence during last year’s student-led movement that spiraled into one of the bloodiest political crises in the nation’s history.

An estimated 1,400 people were killed in July and August 2024 during the anti-quota protests that evolved into a full-scale rebellion against her rule.

While refusing to apologize for the deaths, Hasina told The Independent she “mourns each and every child, sibling, cousin and friend we lost as a nation.” However, she condemned the ongoing International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) proceedings against her as a “sham trial” orchestrated by political opponents.

“The ICT is presided over by an unelected government consisting of my political opponents,” she said. “Because of my family’s history, I am painfully aware of Bangladesh’s tradition of political assassinations — this move is part of that ugly tradition.”

Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh, was assassinated along with most of his family members on August 15, 1975. Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana Siddiq survived as they were abroad at the time — and, as now, found refuge in India.

The Bangladesh Election Commission suspended the Awami League’s registration in May, while the interim government of Muhammad Yunus, under pressure from the army and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has banned its activities. An election is expected in February 2026, with the schedule likely to be announced by December.

Hasina insists she will not return to Bangladesh “under any government formed after elections that exclude her party.”

“I would love to go home,” she said, “so long as the government there was legitimate, the Constitution was being upheld, and law and order genuinely prevailed.”

For now, Sheikh Hasina remains in quiet exile in Delhi — a familiar refuge for a leader once again caught between history, politics, and survival.