DHAKA: Windows were smashed and petrol bombs hurled at former Bangladesh cricket captain Shakib Al Hasan’s residence after he joined ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s first public media interaction since her 2024 removal from power, in which she vowed to return in December.
Police said a group of people attacked Shakib’s ancestral home in Magura town, about 170km (105 miles) southwest of the capital Dhaka on Wednesday, causing a fire on the upper floor of the residence. The property was unoccupied at the time and no injuries were reported.
Reuters was unable to reach Shakib for comment on the attack. The attack came hours after Shakib, a former Awami League lawmaker, joined a virtual event organised by the Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia in New Delhi. During the audio address, Hasina reiterated that she would return to Bangladesh, where she has been sentenced to death.
Shakib, who was elected to parliament as an Awami League candidate in January 2024, has remained outside Bangladesh since the student-led uprising that toppled Hasina’s government. He faces multiple investigations, including over allegations of murder, embezzlement, fraud and money laundering.
“I will return to my people,” Hasina said. “I know that they may put me in jail or they may kill me, but still I have to go back.”
The event, held on the second anniversary of her ouster, was Hasina’s first public interaction with the media since she fled Bangladesh in 2024. Hasina also said the ban on the Awami League, the party she led for more than four decades, should be lifted after it was barred from political activity following her ouster.
Bangladesh’s foreign ministry condemned Hasina’s media appearance, describing it as an affront to the sovereignty of Bangladesh and warning that allowing her to address the media from India could harm bilateral relations. Hasina, 78, has been living in New Delhi since August 2024. Bangladesh has sought her extradition from India, which says the request is being examined under its legal procedures. In November 2025, the country’s war crimes tribunal sentenced her to death in absentia over the deadly crackdown on the 2024 student-led uprising, charges she has dismissed as politically motivated.
Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2026
