New Delhi: In the backdrop of Bangladesh BNP govt warning to India not to give media space to the former PM of Bangladesh and leader of Awami League, Sheikh Hasina addressed a virtual press conference at FCC in New Delhi on August 5. Addressing a packed hall of media she said that she will return to Bangladesh in December and that her return is important not just for herself to be amongst her people and her home but it is equally important for her country and for regional stability and security. Asked if she felt safe returning to a country that has demanded India her extradition she said even through she apprehends that she may be arrested and put in jail or even killed, she still will want to return to put the country on the “right track” by restoring democracy.
Her son Sajeeb Wazid Joy who too joined virtually alleged that the ISI and Al Qaeeda are operating freely in Bangladesh and the country is turning out to be global terror hub. He emphasized that Indian media which has influence on International media should write about the violence happening in Bangladesh .
Responding to the fact that she was allowed to address this live PC, Bangladesh govt has conveyed its deep disappointment and outrage. In a statement issued it calls it ‘an affront to sovereignty.’ Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, using strong words against her said, “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. It is a grievous insult to the “martyrs of the July Revolution.”
Remember, Hasina faces a death sentence in Bangladesh and her party, the Awami League, has been banned. She was forced to flee Bangladesh in August 2024 amid the students’ protests, ending her 15 year rule, has been living in exile in India ever since. Though she was convicted in absentia of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death in November 2025 by the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka, Hasina has insisted that she would return to Bangladesh. Since the verdict, Dhaka has been urging New Delhi to extradite her to face the law.
In the briefing by MEA before the event when asked about the press conf, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal distancing himself from the event said that this is an event organized by a private entity and that govt of India has nothing to do with it. He affirmed that it had no involvement in the media event and doesn’t endorse her views.
In the evening after the Press Conference on August 5 Dhaka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a stern message stated that, “Dhaka deeply regrets that in spite of concerns conveyed a priori to the Government of India about the likely ramifications of this event on the reset of our bilateral relations, this public event was permitted to be held.’ It said Bangladeshis had already rejected such attempts and would continue to do so, asserting that the country would never return to what it called the “dark days of fascism” or become a “client state,” and that Ms. Hasina’s “mafia enterprise” would have no future place in Bangladeshi politics. It goes on to say that while Dhaka sought a “constructive, mutually beneficial and forward-looking” relationship with India based on sovereign equality and non-interference, its repeated requests for Hasina’s extradition under the 2013 Bangladesh-India Extradition Treaty had gone unanswered, and that allowing her to address the media only deepened the hurt felt by the Bangladeshi public.’
The Press Conference was attended by Director for Bangladesh Human Rights Watch USA Shah Md Bakhtiar, veteran International Journalist and Political Analyst Waiel Awwad, General Secretary of Bangladesh Human Rights Watch Muhammad Ali Siddiqui, former Bangladesh education minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, writer and political analyst Abu Obaidha Arin. Hasina’s son Sazib Wazid Joy joined online and answered questions.
It was the second time Hasina addressed Indian media vritually. Bangladesh marked the second anniversary of the uprising that forced her from power.
