There is no update, yet, on Sheikh Hasina’s future plans, the External Affairs Ministry said Thursday, days after the Bangladeshi leader fled her country amid violent protests against her rule. “We do not have any update on her plan…” a ministry spokesperson said when asked when she will leave India.
Mrs Hasina – who resigned and left Dhaka hours before the Prime Minister’s residence was overrun – was evacuated in a military aircraft and flown to an IAF base in Uttar Pradesh. She was expected to proceed onwards to claim political asylum in the United Kingdom, but there has been no news since.
For now, she is understood to be in a ‘safe place’ and in the custody of Indian intelligence.
On Wednesday night Mrs Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed, told NDTV his mother had not made formal requests for asylum in any country, including India. “Reports about her requesting asylum are incorrect. She has not requested anywhere. So question of UK or US not responding yet is not true.”
Mr Wazed is based in Washington, D.C. in the United States. Mrs Hasina left Bangladesh with her sister Sheikh Rehana, who is a UK citizen and whose daughter, Tulip Siddiqui is a Labour MP. Her daughter, Saima Wazed, is a Delhi-based senior figure in the World Health Organisation.
The former PM’s son also told NDTV his mother is contemplating retirement after a political career spanning five terms as the head of Bangladesh’s government. “She is done with politics in Bangladesh… my mother was planning to retire anyway, this was going to be her last term,” he said.
On Tuesday External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made a brief statement in Parliament, in which he said the government had received, “at very short notice”, Mrs Hasina’s request to come to India.
“On August 5, demonstrators converged in Dhaka despite the curfew. Our understanding is that after a meeting with leaders of the security establishment, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina apparently made the decision to resign. At very short notice, she requested approval to come for the moment to India. We simultaneously received a request for flight clearance from Bangladesh authorities. She arrived yesterday evening in Delhi,” he said.