- It is unclear whether Sheikh Hasina will contest the election.
- Hasina's Awami League party is not in the interim government.
- She is currently sheltering in a safe house in the New Delhi area of India.
Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh's ousted prime minister, has yet to bid farewell to her home country as the leader of the Awami League party is set to return.
Hasina's son and Awami League leader Sajeeb Wazed Joy confirmed that his mother will return to Bangladesh when her new interim government decides to hold elections. Reuters reported.
Bangladesh's 76-year-old former prime minister fled to neighbouring India earlier this week after weeks of deadly protests forced her to resign.
An interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was sworn in on Thursday and will be tasked with holding elections.
“At the moment, she (Hasina) is in India. She will return to Bangladesh the moment the interim government decides to hold elections,” Joy told reporters. Times of India.
However, he did not specify whether Hasina would contest the election.
“My mother would have retired from politics after the current term,” Joy said.
“I never had any political ambitions and was based in the US, but the events of the last few days in Bangladesh show that there is a leadership vacuum. I had to mobilise for the good of the party and now I am at the forefront,” he told the newspaper.
Hasina's Awami League party is not in the interim government, following a student-led uprising against the former prime minister whose ouster came after nationwide violence killed more than 400 people and injured thousands.
She is currently sheltering in a safe house in the New Delhi area. Indian media have reported that she plans to seek asylum in Britain, but the British Home Office has declined to comment.
India's foreign minister said on Thursday he had spoken to his British counterpart about Bangladesh but did not share any details.
