Violence Erupts in Bangladesh as Supporters of Ousted PM Sheikh Hasina Demand Her Return

Early on Tuesday in the city of Faridpur, a passenger bus was set on fire. The driver, a 60-year-old man, died of smoke inhalation. He is the one confirmed death in a wave of unrest that has spread across Bangladesh in the days since the deposed prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, said she wanted to come home.

Police have used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up crowds of her supporters. In Gopalganj district, members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of Hasina's Awami League, clashed with security forces, and a police vehicle was burned. The BCL is banned. Its nationwide protests began a day after Hasina said she had asked for a passport to return from exile in India, and they are seen as the first organised show of force by her backers since she was driven from power in August 2024.

The disruption has been physical and widespread. Protesters tried to block roads with burning tyres, slowing traffic in parts of the country. About 200 of them briefly blocked the 6.2km Padma bridge over the Ganges, which links Dhaka to the south-west. Several passenger vehicles were set alight in different places in the run-up to the protest. Local media reported that dozens of crude bombs exploded in Dhaka and elsewhere over the past few days.

The government has answered in hard terms. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said no attempt to worsen law and order or create instability, through any conspiracy launched from across the border in India, would be allowed to succeed. A senior BCL leader, who is himself in exile abroad, rejected responsibility for the violence. He said the attacks were carried out by unknown miscreants and that the movement believes in peaceful protest.

Hasina's position is unusual. She fled to India two years ago after a mass uprising ended her 15-year rule. Opposition parties accused her of jailing rivals, suppressing dissent and presiding over widespread abuses, which she has always denied. The United Nations has estimated that up to 1,400 people were killed in the 2024 protests, most of them by gunfire from security forces. The Awami League's activities were banned soon after she left, and the party was barred from the February general election. Last year a special tribunal sentenced her to death in absentia for crimes against humanity. She calls the trial biased and politically motivated.

Even so, she said she wanted to return in December and asked the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi for a passport. Dhaka refused and called her a terrorist. Humaiun Kobir, the junior foreign affairs minister, called her a fugitive criminal, said Bangladesh has an active extradition treaty with India and wants her handed over, and asked whether she should be treated like an ordinary commercial traveller visiting her in-laws' residence. On Tuesday a state prosecutor said the verdict would be carried out if she returned, adding that she had missed her chance to appeal.

The Awami League tells a different story about the past two years. Its leaders allege that hundreds of supporters have been killed in mob violence and dozens have died in the custody of security forces. Officials in Dhaka reject the claim that Awami League supporters are being systematically targeted.

What to watch now is whether these protests fade or grow into a sustained, organised opposition, and how India responds to Dhaka's demand that Hasina be handed over.