Bangladesh's longest-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed began her political career as a pro-democracy icon, but fled mass protests against her rule in August 2024 after 15 years in power.
Since then, Hasina has been in self-imposed exile in India, where she flew after being deposed by the student-led uprising which spiralled into nationwide unrest.
On 17 November, a special tribunal in Dhaka sentenced her to death after convicting her of crimes against humanity. It was found Hasina had ordered a deadly crackdown on protesters between 15 July and 5 August 2024. She denied all charges against her.
Up to 1,400 people were killed during the weeks of protests leading up to her ousting, most by gunfire from security forces, UN human rights investigators said. Their report found that she and her government had tried to cling to power using systematic, deadly violence against protesters.
It was the worst bloodshed the country had seen since independence in 1971.
The protests brought an unexpected end to the reign of Hasina, who had ruled Bangladesh for more than 20 years.
She and her Awami League party were credited with overseeing the South Asian country's economic progress. But in recent years she was accused of turning autocratic and clamping down on any opposition to her rule.
Politically-motivated arrests, disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other abuses all rose under her rule.
An order to 'use lethal weapons'
In January 2024, Hasina won an unprecedented fourth term as prime minister in an election widely decried by critics as being a sham and boycotted by the main opposition.
Protests began later that year with a demand to abolish quotas in civil service jobs. By summer, they had morphed into a wider anti-government movement as she used the police to violently crack down on protesters.
Amid increasing calls for resignation, Hasina remained defiant and condemned the agitators as “terrorists.” She also threw hundreds of people into jail and brought criminal charges against hundreds more.
A leaked audio clip suggested she had ordered security forces to 'use lethal weapons' against protesters. She denies ever issuing an order to fire on unarmed civilians.
Some of the bloodiest scenes occurred on 5 August, the day Hasina fled by helicopter before crowds stormed her residence in Dhaka. Police killed at least 52 people that day in a busy neighbourhood, making it one of the worst cases of police violence in the country's history.
Hasina, who has been tried in absentia, called the tribunal a farce.
She called for the ban on her party to be lifted before elections due in February.
How did Sheikh Hasina come to power?
Born to a Muslim family in East Bengal in 1947, Hasina had politics in her blood.
Her father was the nationalist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's Father of the Nation who led the country's independence from Pakistan in 1971 and became its first president.
At that time, Hasina had already established a reputation as a student leader at Dhaka University.
Her father was assassinated with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975. Only Hasina and her younger sister survived as they were travelling abroad at the time.
After living in exile in India, Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and became leader of the Awami League, the political party her father belonged to.
She joined forces with other parties to hold pro-democracy protests during the military rule of General Hussain Muhammed Ershad. Propelled by the popular uprising, Hasina quickly became a national icon.
She was first elected to power in 1996. She was credited for signing a water-sharing deal with India and a peace deal with tribal insurgents in the south-east of the country.
However, her government faced criticism for numerous allegedly corrupt business deals and being too subservient to India.
She later lost to her former ally-turned-nemesis, Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, in 2001.
As heirs to political dynasties, both women have dominated Bangladesh politics for more than three decades, often leading to violent clashes between their supporters.
Observers say their rivalry resulted in has seen numerous disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
Hasina returned to power in 2009 in polls held under a caretaker government.
Surviving numerous assassination attempts and persistent opposition, Hasina has remained a central figure in Bangladeshi politics.
Achievements and controversies
Once one of the world's poorest nations, Bangladesh achieved significant economic success under her leadership from 2009.
Its per capita income tripled in the last decade, and over 25 million people were lifted out of poverty in the last 20 years.
Much of this growth has been powered by the garment industry, which has become the primary driver of exports.
However, Bangladesh's government has been criticized for enacting repressive measures against political opponents and media. Rights groups reported hundreds of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings since Hasina took power again in 2009.
The escalation of human rights abuses, coupled with increasing corruption allegations, led to ongoing protests and unrest, culminating in Hasina's resignation.
