More than 16 months after the fall of Sheikh Hasina's autocratic regime, exiled members of Bangladesh's Awami League are plotting a political comeback from Kolkata, India. The former prime minister fled to India in July 2024 as a deadly crackdown on protesters left up to 1,400 dead, according to a UN report. Thousands of party members escaped mob violence and criminal charges, with over 600 taking shelter in the Indian city near the Bangladeshi border.
India has been a crucial lifeline for the party, which was suspended by Bangladesh's interim government in May 2024 and banned from contesting the upcoming 12 February election. A war crimes tribunal sentenced Hasina to death for crimes against humanity, a verdict she dismissed as false. From a secret hideout in Delhi, Hasina spends up to 16 hours a day in meetings and calls with supporters, scheming to disrupt the election and stage a return.
Senior party leaders, including former MPs and ministers, are routinely summoned from Kolkata to meet Hasina. Saddam Hussain, president of the banned Bangladesh Chhatra League, said: 'Our leader is very hopeful she will return to Bangladesh. We believe Sheikh Hasina will come back as a hero.' Hussain faces multiple charges including sedition and crimes against humanity, which he denies.
The interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has promised the February polls will be Bangladesh's first free and fair election in over a decade. But the Awami League argues that barring them from contesting undermines democratic legitimacy. Former minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak, who also faces crimes against humanity charges, urged supporters to boycott the election, calling it a 'sham process'. Critics view the party's sudden championing of democracy with scepticism, given its 15-year record of despotism and kleptocracy.
