DHAKA: Former Bangladesh prime minister and chief of the banned Awami League Sheikh Hasina, who was sentenced to death in her country, announced on Friday that she and her party colleagues plan to return to Dhaka “voluntarily” around December and surrender.“They can arrest me when I return, they can even kill me,” Sheikh Hasina told Reuters news agency. “Still, I have to go,” the 78-year-old told the news agency, while sources in the Tariq Rahman-led BNP government tried to downplay her statements, saying it was their decision. Whether he is extradited or returns on his own, he will face trial, he said.It was the second time Hasina had expressed her intention to return from India, where she had fled to escape angry mobs who had threatened to kill her amid violent protests against her government in 2024.However, Haseena’s return would not be a safe proposition.Want Hasina back so she can be hanged: NCP MPFriday’s recurrence appears to mark an assessment that the BNP arrangement represents a change in stance from the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, which had made no secret of its hostility towards Hasina, and on whose watch she was sentenced to death in what many consider a sham trial.Her return could also help the BNP government, which has been accused by opponents of not trying hard enough to bring back Hasina, as well as address an irritant in ties with New Delhi that has been used by pro-Pakistan elements and Islamists to stoke hostility towards India.On their intention to return, a former member of the Hasina cabinet who is in ‘exile’ told TOI, “Public perception has changed massively, and the growing broad consensus globally and locally on inclusive politics in Bangladesh is the strength of the Awami League.”He said, “Ultimately, our hope is that the political leadership in Bangladesh will now accept the political reality that everyone expects inclusive politics. Political exclusion is not good for the socio-economic situation and law and order.”Government sources, including her interview published by NDTV on June 29, said that if Hasina returned, she would face trial on multiple counts, including crimes against humanity. In one such case he was sentenced to death.However, Hasina’s return would not be a safe proposition as an MP from the NCP – an ally of the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami and a party whose members had led the protests against Hasina – had vowed to ensure that she is hanged. NCP’s Nahid Islam, the opposition chief whip in Parliament, said, “We saw an interview. Someone said they were planning to return in December. Our demand is that the country has already suffered 16 years of devastation. Now, we also want that person to return, so that the death penalty can be carried out.”However, Hasina and her allies may be counting on the support of the Awami League, while being cognizant of the possibility of it disappearing in the absence of anyone from the family of the country’s founder, her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. She said, “If death comes, I want it to come to my land, where my parents were buried and where their blood was shed.”