Bangladesh’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said it was “outraged” that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was allowed to engage in a media interaction in New Delhi, and remarked that such events are detrimental to bilateral ties.“Dhaka deeply regrets that in spite of concerns conveyed apriori to the Government of India about the likely ramifications of this event on the reset of our bilateral relations, this public event was permitted to be held,” the ministry said.During an audio-only virtual press conference on Wednesday, Hasina said that she is determined to return home in December to put the country on the “right track”, PTI reported.Held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, the interaction was Hasina’s first public media appearance since she fled to Delhi in August 2024 amid widespread protests against her government.Hasina said that she would return to Bangladesh to restore democracy despite the risk of imprisonment or even a death sentence.Hasina also demanded that the ban on her party, the Awami League, be lifted and political prisoners be released. She urged the international community to support the people of Bangladesh in their struggle for democracy and justice.The Indian foreign ministry has said that Hasina’s press conference was organised by a private media entity and the government has no involvement in it.Bangladesh’s foreign ministry also accused Hasina of denying “facts established by the United Nations” that her government was responsible for killing civilians, including children, during the July-August 2024 unrest. The ministry alleged that Hasina was attempting to rewrite history and said the people of Bangladesh had repeatedly rejected such efforts.In February 2025, the United Nations had said that the previous Bangladesh government headed by Sheikh Hasina was behind systematic repression and killings of protesters in 2024, suggesting that the abuses could amount to “crimes against humanity”.During the press conference, Hasina described India as a “great friend” of Bangladesh, PTI reported. She said that India always stood by her country in times of difficulty.The Awami League leader also dismissed any back-channel talks with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government over her return.“I may be detained, I may be sent to prison”, PTI quoted her as saying. She said that the Bangladesh government may try to “enforce verdicts issued in fabricated cases”.Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal in November sentenced Hasina to death for crimes against humanity in connection with the deadly crackdown on the protesters in 2024. In February, a court sentenced her to 10 years imprisonment in two corruption cases relating to alleged irregularities in the allocations of land in a government housing project in Dhaka.Dhaka has repeatedly demanded that Hasina be extradited. It has also expressed concerns about the ousted leader being allowed by Indian authorities to address her supporters from Delhi.Hasina further claimed that the July and August 2024 protests that toppled her government were not a peaceful student movement. She alleged that “organised groups” transformed the protests into a “violent political instrument”.Massive student-led protests erupted in Bangladesh in July 2024 against a controversial quota scheme for government jobs and later snowballed into a broader agitation against Hasina’s government.In May 2025, the interim government in Bangladesh at the time banned all activities of the Awami League, including its online platforms, under the country’s anti-terrorism act.In October, Hasina described the ban as unjust and said that it could undermine the legitimacy of the elections, which were held in February. The Tarique Rahman-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party, a rival of the Awami League, came to power in the polls.Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.