Sheikh Hasina

Sheikh Hasina Wazed, born 28 September 1947 in Tungipara, is the eldest daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh. She survived the 15 August 1975 coup that killed most of her family because she was abroad at the time, and subsequently lived in exile in India before returning to Bangladesh in 1981 to lead the Awami League.

She served as Prime Minister across two distinct periods: first from 1996 to 2001, and then continuously from January 2009 until August 2024, winning consecutive general elections in 2008, 2014, 2018, and January 2024. Her tenure was associated with substantial GDP growth, expansion of the ready-made garment export sector, large infrastructure projects such as the Padma Bridge (inaugurated 2022), and the sheltering of roughly one million Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar from 2017 onward.

Her governments were also widely criticized by international observers, including Human Rights Watch and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, for enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings attributed to the Rapid Action Battalion, restrictions on press freedom under the 2018 Digital Security Act, and elections that opposition parties and several Western governments described as not credible. The 2014 and 2024 polls were boycotted by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

In July–August 2024, a student-led protest movement initially focused on civil service job quotas escalated into a mass uprising after a violent crackdown. On 5 August 2024, Hasina resigned and fled to India. An interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in on 8 August 2024. Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal subsequently issued arrest warrants against her on charges including crimes against humanity related to the crackdown, and Dhaka has formally requested her extradition from India.