Bangladeshi ex-PM Hasina says to return to country by year-end

Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, living in exile in India for the past two years, on Wednesday said that she would return to her home country by year-end.

"The date of her return will be announced later. But she will return to Bangladesh’s people," she said while addressing the media in New Delhi through audio. Hasina added that she wanted to return to her home country to revive its path of progress. In the audio message, she demanded that the ban on her party, the Bangladesh Awami League, be lifted, false cases against her and her partymen be dropped, and freedom of speech be restored in Bangladesh. The audio was released at a media event at a journalists' club in the Indian capital to mark two years since Hasina's ouster from Bangladesh following a protest in 2024.