Reuters reported on Nov. 9 that it had seen a letter from Sheikh Hasina’s lawyers at London-based Matrix Chambers to Preeti Rahman, Bangladesh’s acting high commissioner in Delhi, seeking a new passport and national identity card; the letter itself is not posted publicly. Reuters said Rahman and spokespeople for Prime Minister Tarique Rahman did not immediately respond. Dhaka Tribune separately reported Foreign Affairs State Minister Humaiun Kobir’s Nov. 5 statement that the government wanted Hasina returned under the Bangladesh-India extradition treaty and did not consider a passport necessary. India has previously said Bangladesh’s extradition requests were under examination, but no decision on this passport request or a return date is confirmed. Hasina’s earlier December return plan and her lawyers’ application are not evidence that a document has been approved or travel arranged. No independent INCE interviews were conducted. A bounded search of actual-event Reuters/AP and official-photo material found no legally verified reusable image of the private passport request; the two distinct real photographs are dated archive context, not scenes from Nov. 9. The lead image is from the Girl Summit in London on July 22, 2014, by Russell Watkins / Department for International Development, CC BY 2.0. The inline image shows Hasina meeting European Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen at the Global Gateway Forum on Oct. 25, 2023; photographer Nicolas Landemard / European Union, licensed CC BY 4.0. Both originals are retained in editorial-assets/source-originals/hasina-passport-request-2026-11-09; derivatives were proportionally resized to 1,000 pixels wide, converted to WebP at quality 61 and stripped of metadata without cropping or retouching.
A request is not a document or a return date
Sheikh Hasina’s lawyers have asked Bangladesh’s diplomatic mission in New Delhi to issue the former prime minister a new passport and national identity card, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The request was addressed to acting high commissioner Preeti Rahman on Monday, Nov. 9.
The lawyers said the documents had reportedly been revoked by Bangladesh’s previous interim authorities and asked for the applications to be processed quickly. A national identity card, or NID, is a domestic identity document; the passport is the travel document. The letter asks the government to act, but no new passport or card has been confirmed as issued.
Reuters said Rahman and spokespeople for Prime Minister Tarique Rahman did not immediately respond to its requests for comment. The letter has not been made public, so its wording is known here through Reuters’ account of a document its reporters reviewed.
Dhaka says extradition is the route
The application lands alongside a different, state-to-state process. Bangladesh has repeatedly asked India to extradite Hasina, who has lived there since leaving Bangladesh in August 2024. India has said the requests are being examined under its procedures; it has not announced a decision to hand her over.
On Nov. 5, Foreign Affairs State Minister Humaiun Kobir said Bangladesh wanted Hasina returned under the countries’ extradition treaty and that a passport was not needed for that route, Dhaka Tribune reported. A passport application and an extradition request are therefore not the same step: one seeks personal identity and travel documents, while the other asks the Indian government to transfer her to Bangladesh.
The December plan remains unconfirmed
Hasina has previously said she intends to return in December. Reuters reported that she told it she plans to surrender before a court, while aides said the date would be announced after formalities are completed. The new application makes that stated intention more concrete, but it does not confirm that either government has approved travel or that a date is set.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Hasina in absentia in 2025 over the deadly 2024 crackdown on student-led protests. She denies the charges. Whether she returns through a passport process or is transferred under extradition remains unresolved; neither outcome follows automatically from the lawyers’ request.
Sources
4 references
- ReutersHasina seeks new passport in clearest sign of Bangladesh returnOriginal reporting based on a letter seen by Reuters; source for the application, intended return, prior verdict and official non-responses. · 2026-11-09
- Dhaka TribuneHumaiun Kobir: Bangladesh wants Hasina extradited from IndiaLocal reporting of the foreign affairs state minister’s statement that Dhaka seeks return under the extradition treaty and does not consider a passport necessary; also reports India’s earlier position that the request was being examined. · 2026-11-05
- Wikimedia CommonsSheikh Hasina, Honourable Prime Minister of Bangladesh.jpg — file record and CC BY 2.0 termsRussell Watkins / Department for International Development; archive photograph from the Girl Summit, with file page recording creator, date, original and Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license. · 2014-07-22
- Wikimedia CommonsSheikh Hasina & Jutta Urpilainen — Global Gateway Forum file record and CC BY 4.0 termsNicolas Landemard / European Union, 2023 / EC Audiovisual Service; original Commission photo and Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 terms recorded on the file page. · 2023-10-25
