Despite rifts, parties unite against Hasina return
Ruling party BNP, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party (NCP) have clashed repeatedly in recent weeks — their leaders and workers trading accusations and, at times, blows on the streets — but on one issue they stand firmly together: none of them wants ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina back in politics.
The tensions between BNP and its rivals have been building for months, with field-level confrontations between BNP activists and Jamaat and NCP supporters widening the gap between the parties on a range of domestic issues.
Yet that rivalry has been set aside, at least for now, as Hasina signals her intent to return home from exile in India.
Two years after a student-led uprising forced her from power and into exile, Hasina has made her clearest statement yet that she intends to come back to Bangladesh — even though a special tribunal has sentenced her to death over the deadly crackdown on the 2024 protests that ended her rule.
In an audio address delivered to journalists from New Delhi, the 78-year-old former prime minister said she was prepared to face detention, imprisonment or worse.
She said fabricated cases might be used to enforce verdicts against her, but that fear could not stand in the way of what she described as her duty to her supporters.
Home minister Salahuddin Ahmed used a public appearance in Cox’s Bazar to make clear the interim government’s position.
Speaking to reporters after laying the foundation stone for a new building at Cox’s Bazar Medical College Hospital, he questioned the authenticity of reports carrying Hasina’s alleged statements and accused unnamed actors abroad of trying to destabilise Bangladesh — attempts he predicted would fail.
He said those accused of genocide and crimes against humanity had shown no remorse and had never apologised to the Bangladeshi people, and declared that such figures would not be permitted to resume political activity in the country.
Leader of the opposition in parliament and Jamaat-e-Islami amir Shafiqur Rahman struck a similar note at a meeting with local journalists at the Bagerhat Circuit House.
He said the government should take responsibility for bringing Hasina back to Bangladesh so she could face trial, arguing that the Awami League had “destroyed the country’s politics” and left countless families grieving through a campaign of enforced disappearances, many of whose victims remain unaccounted for.
Shafiqur said the Awami League could not return to political life merely “by changing its appearance,” noting the party had neither apologised nor shown remorse, and warned against absorbing its leaders and activists into Jamaat’s ranks to shore up numbers.
He added that no such requests had been made to, or approved by, the party’s central leadership.
On Hasina specifically, he said she should be made to face the tribunal’s verdict and any pending judicial proceedings, but stressed that the process should be fair. “We do not want an unjust trial,” he said.
NCP convener and opposition chief whip Nahid Islam delivered the sharpest warning.
Addressing a discussion organised by the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh, in Dhaka — attended by families of those killed or injured in the 2024 uprising — Nahid said that if Hasina returned, she would be taken directly from the airport to the gallows to face the death sentence handed down in absentia.
He accused unnamed quarters of working to reinstate what he called the “fascist” Awami League and vowed to mobilise the public against any such effort.
He also criticised India for allowing Hasina to hold political events and media addresses from its soil, saying New Delhi bears responsibility for her continued political activity from exile.
Nahid additionally cautioned the BNP-led government under Tarique Rahman that ignoring the outcome of the 2026 referendum for too long risked a public backlash.
Shakib Al Hasan Weighs Return
The debate over accountability and return from exile extends beyond politics. Cricket star Shakib Al Hasan, a former Awami League lawmaker and an ally of Hasina, said he is willing to end his own two-year exile in the United States, face trial on charges including murder, and play a farewell series if the government guarantees his safety.
Speaking to Reuters by phone from Sri Lanka, where he is playing franchise cricket, the 39-year-old former national captain said he still hopes to represent Bangladesh once more and play in the 2027 one-day World Cup.
“If I get the clearance from the government that my security will be ensured, I am happy to go back, face the court trial and everything that’s needed to be done,” he said.
His case illustrates the broader dilemma facing Tarique Rahman’s government: whether and how to accommodate figures associated with the former ruling party, even as it takes a hard line against Hasina’s own return.
