New Delhi: Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina requested a new passport on Monday (November 9) to facilitate her return from exile two years after she was ousted in a mass uprising.Dhaka responded by saying it does not issue passports to “terrorists” and that Hasina ought to submit to extradition. It has sought her repatriation from India pursuant to her conviction and death sentence – handed down in absentia – for ‘crimes against humanity’ during her government’s crackdown on protesters in July and August.Hasina’s Awami League party said on Monday that she applied for a passport and a national identity card as part of her plans to return and because the interim government that assumed power after her ouster had revoked these documents. She had contacted the Bangladeshi high commission in New Delhi via her legal representatives at the London-based Matrix Chambers firm seeking an expedited decision, it said.“This is a significant step toward her homecoming. Having had her documents revoked by the previous regime, Her Excellency looks forward to reclaiming her fundamental rights as a Bangladeshi citizen and receiving the necessary documents,” Abu Obaidha Arin, an aide to Hasina, told the Associated Press’s Julhas Alam.“She is determined to return to Bangladesh by December, and she will undoubtedly return home,” he said.Asked about Hasina’s request at a media briefing in Dhaka, minister of state for foreign affairs Humayun Kabir rebuffed it as “utterly ridiculous”.“Bangladesh does not issue passports to terrorists … If she genuinely wants to return to Bangladesh, she should ask the Indian government to hand her over under the extradition treaty,” the state-owned BSS news agency quoted Kabir as saying. The minister reportedly did not comment on whether Dhaka would grant Hasina a one-way travel permit.Later on Monday, the Awami League – which was barred from contesting the February general elections in Bangladesh – also cited the Delhi-based Rights and Risks Analysis Group NGO as arguing that Dhaka would be violating Hasina’s rights by denying her the right to return to her home country.Bangladesh’s military sent Hasina to India after student-led protests forced her from power on August 5, 2024. A special tribunal in 2025 sentenced her to death for crimes against humanity, ruling that she was responsible for ordering the crackdown, which left hundreds of people dead and thousands of others injured.The United Nations has said nearly 1,400 people were killed. Hasina denies any wrongdoing. She also has rejected the tribunal’s verdict and challenged the legitimacy of the trial.An interim government led Bangladesh after Hasina’s ouster and held an election in February that Hasina’s Awami League party was barred from contesting.Tarique Rahman, the son of Begum Khaleda Zia, a longtime arch-rival of Hasina, came to power in a landslide.With inputs from AP.This story was updated with statements by Humayun Kabir and the Awami League.