Bangladesh’s fugitive former leader Sheikh Hasina has warned that excluding her Awami League party from next year’s elections would deepen divisions in the country as millions of her supporters are set to boycott the vote.

Now exiled in India, the 78-year-old is currently being tried for crimes against humanity after being toppled in August 2024 by a student-led uprising that, according to the United Nations, saw up to 1,400 people killed in crackdowns as she clung to power.

The interim government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has pledged to hold elections in February but has banned the Awami League under amendments to the antiterrorism act, citing national security threats and war crimes investigations into the party’s senior leaders.

“The ban on the Awami League is no

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