New Delhi: Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday (August 5) declared that she would return to Bangladesh in December despite the prospect of arrest, accusing the government in Dhaka of dismantling democracy and persecuting political opponents.Within hours, Bangladesh lodged a furious protest, accusing New Delhi of allowing Indian territory to be used for what it described as attacks on the Bangladeshi state despite having been warned in advance that the media interaction could damage bilateral ties.Speaking through an audio link at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia (FCC), Hasina said she would return to Bangladesh regardless of the consequences.“I know I may be detained. I may be sent to prison … But fear cannot decide my duty to the people,” she said, adding that she intended to return in December, which she described as Bangladesh’s “victory month”.“I know I may face anything. But Bangladesh needs reconciliation. Bangladesh needs constitutional development … I believe in democracy. I believe in a secular democratic system. That’s why I want to go back,” she said.Hasina, who has been living in India since fleeing Bangladesh after the student-led uprising of August 2024 ended her 15-year rule, rejected once again the popular account of the July-August 2024 protests that led to her removal.Last year, the International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic Bangladeshi court, sentenced her to death after convicting her of crimes against humanity over the killings during the crackdown against the 2024 students’ uprising. Hasina has dismissed the proceedings as politically motivated.The Awami League leader argued that the agitation “was not a peaceful student movement” but a “coordinated assault on constitutional order” carried out through organised violence and propaganda.She also accused the then-interim administration headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and the subsequent Bangladesh Nationalist Party government of political persecution, suppressing democratic freedoms and presiding over economic decline.Hasina alleged that thousands of Awami League leaders and supporters had been killed or arrested and millions implicated in criminal cases. She also accused the authorities of abandoning judicial inquiries into the 2024 violence while granting immunity to those responsible for killings.Calling Bangladesh’s present crisis one with regional implications, Hasina urged the international community to support what she described as the restoration of democracy and demanded that the ban on the Awami League be lifted, political prisoners released, false cases withdrawn, media freedom restored and judicial independence guaranteed.Hasina was joined at the event by several former Awami League leaders, including former education minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, former diplomat Aminul Hoque Polash and her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Cricketer Shakib al Hasan was also present.Joy accused successive governments in Dhaka of suppressing political opposition, curbing press freedom and allowing Islamist extremism to regain ground. He also said there had been no communication with the current Bangladeshi government over Hasina’s proposed return.Asked about her stay in India, Joy said the Indian government had treated Hasina “like a head of state” and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for according her “the utmost respect”.Responding to questions, Hasina said India had consistently stood by Bangladesh during times of crisis.Sheikh Hasina appears via audio link at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of India in New Delhi, making her second public address from exile, on August 5, 2026. Photo: PTI/Karma Bhutia.“India is our friendly country … They always remain as a friend. But I want to go back to my own country,” she said.Asked whether she regretted the violence and deaths during the protests, Joy responded on her behalf, arguing that the question of an apology could not arise while the interim and current governments had granted what he called blanket indemnity to protesters accused of killing police officers and Awami League members.“You can’t have one set of killings being legal and another set someone has to apologise for,” he said, adding that the party would express regret only once “the protesters who killed police officers and civilians and Awami League members are arrested”.A couple of hours later, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry issued a strongly worded statement condemning both Hasina’s remarks and India’s decision to allow the event to proceed.“Bangladesh is outraged that the absconding convicted genocider Sheikh Hasina was allowed this evening to engage in live interaction with the media in New Delhi where she and her henchmen launched venomous vitriol against the State of Bangladesh and her people,” the ministry said.It said Dhaka “deeply regrets” that despite conveying its concerns beforehand to the government of India, “this public event was permitted to be held”. The statement described the programme, held on the second anniversary of what Bangladesh officially commemorates as the July Revolution, as “an affront to the sovereignty of Bangladesh” and “a grievous insult to the martyrs of the July Revolution”.While reiterating Bangladesh’s desire to maintain “a constructive, mutually beneficial and forward-looking relationship with India” based on sovereign equality and non-interference, the ministry noted that New Delhi had yet to respond to Dhaka’s repeated requests for Hasina’s extradition under the 2013 Extradition Treaty.“On the contrary, allowing her the opportunity to openly interact with the media under any pretext is deeply hurtful to our people’s sentiment and detrimental to the development of harmonious bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India,” it said.The press conference had already become a diplomatic flashpoint even before it began. On Monday, Bangladesh disclosed that it had formally conveyed its objections to India, warning that permitting Hasina to make political remarks from Indian territory could undermine the recent improvement in bilateral ties.A day later, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the interaction was being organised by “a private media entity”, that the Indian government had “no involvement whatsoever” in it and didn’t endorse any remarks that would be made.While New Delhi has maintained that the government neither organised nor endorsed the FCC event, it has previously told parliament’s standing committee on external affairs that Hasina had been given refuge only on humanitarian grounds and had not been provided political space to undertake political activity from Indian territory.The committee itself observed that India had adhered to the principle that no political activity should be directed against another country from its soil.Wednesday’s appearance was Hasina’s second speech at a public event in New Delhi after fleeing Dhaka.Her first, in January this year, was also her first live public media appearance from exile. During that interaction, she described the Yunus-led interim administration as a “murderous fascist” regime, demanded a United Nations investigation into the circumstances surrounding her removal from office and called for the Awami League to boycott the parliamentary election.Since her arrival in India two years ago, Hasina has periodically addressed party workers through recorded messages and social media. She has also given numerous written and phone media interviews. Each public political intervention has drawn protests from Dhaka, which has repeatedly argued that India should not permit her to conduct political activities from Indian territory, while also pursuing her extradition.