Bangladesh 'Outraged' as Hasina Holds India Press Conference
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- Sheikh Hasina addressed a virtual press conference in New Delhi on August 5, 2026 — her first public appearance since being deposed — organized by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia, on the very day Bangladesh marked the second anniversary of the July Revolution.
- Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling the event an affront to sovereignty and a 'grievous insult to the martyrs,' repeating its characterization of Hasina as an absconding, convicted 'genocider' sentenced to death in absentia by the International Crimes Tribunal.
- Dhaka said it had warned New Delhi in advance of likely bilateral fallout from the media interaction, and that its repeated extradition requests for Hasina under the 2013 Bangladesh-India Extradition Treaty have gone unanswered.
- Hasina's associates, including son Sazib Wazed Joy, former minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, and ex-cricket captain Shakib Al Hasan, joined the Delhi event, with Shakib sharing it on his verified Facebook page.
- Shakib Al Hasan's ancestral home in Bangladesh's Magura district was attacked hours later — a group pelted it with stones, poured petrol on the iron gate, and set it alight, according to Magura Sadar police officer Abdullah Al Mamun.
- Bangladesh affirmed it still seeks a 'constructive, mutually beneficial' relationship with India but declared the country would never become a 'client state' or return to 'the dark days of fascism.'
- Dhaka rejected Hasina's bid to contest UN findings on civilian killings during the 2024 crackdown as a 'futile' attempt to 'reverse the tide of history.'
Why it matters: The episode sharpens an already strained India-Bangladesh relationship over Hasina's continued shelter in New Delhi: Bangladesh says it has formally invoked a 2013 extradition treaty that India has ignored, and India's decision to allow a live media event despite advance Dhaka warnings signals it won't budge on that protection — a position Bangladesh now says insults the martyrs of the uprising its government was built upon.
