This is Sheikh Hasina’s second ‘refuge’ stay in Indiapublished at 07:19 GMT
Devina Gupta
Reporting from Delhi
Image source, ReutersSheikh Hasina (left) speaks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) in Delhi, June 2024
On 5 August 2024, Sheikh Hasina’s military aircraft landed at the Hindon Airbase in Ghaziabad as she fled massive protests in Bangladesh.
The day marked the start of a familiar refuge in a country which had helped her earlier.
Just about five decades ago, she had arrived in India with her sister after their father, Bangladesh’s first President – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated along with most of their family in a 1975 military coup.
The sisters were abroad on holiday when the assassination happened. With nowhere to go they turned to India, a crucial ally of Bangladesh in the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan. Hasina was granted political asylum by then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
She, along with her children, husband, and sister, lived in Delhi at the posh location of Pandara Road for almost six years under assumed identities.
During this period, she forged strong political ties with Indian leaders before eventually returning to Bangladesh and entering the political arena herself.
Those in diplomatic circles still recall her especially warm relationship with India’s former President Pranab Mukherjee, to whom she sent gifts until his passing to show gratitude for sheltering her and her sister in their hour of need.