India on Tuesday would not comment on reports that the former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is appealing for a passport and other documents from the Bangladesh high commission so she can return home next month.
Hasina has spent the past few months in self-exile in India following the ouster of her government during a student-led uprising in August 2024. She has been reported to have gone to the Bangladesh mission in New Delhi on Monday for a passport and a national identity card on her way home to Bangladesh in December.
Bangladesh further reportedly declined the request by repeating its demand for Hasina’s extradition this time from the deputy foreign minister Humaiun Kobir.
In response to the development during a normal media briefing, external affairs ministry’s spokesman Randhir Jaiswal had declined to elaborate on the issue. Puzzles over the travel documents for Hasina should be referred to the Bangladesh high commission, he said.
The question that you had raised is the same which you need to raise before the Bangladesh high commission, Jaiswal said, adding that the mission was “in a better position to state its stance” on the matter.
The external affairs ministry said it just noted that if Hasina was proposing to travel the right travel document would be required.
It coincides with uncertainties about Hasina’s future and her possible return to Bangladesh. India continued interest in extraditing her has always been a sensitive issue between the two countries, and she still remains in India. She has stayed in India and had India’s efforts to extradite her still continue to be sensitive points in bilateral discussions.