Does Sheikh Hasina’s party have office in Kolkata?

India has dismissed Dhaka’s allegations that members of the “banned” Awami League are carrying out anti-Bangladesh activities on Indian soil. The Awami League is the party of Sheikh Hasina, who resigned as Prime Minister and fled Bangladesh in August 2024.

The development came after the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry claimed that “Awami League-linked offices” were being run on Indian soil, allegedly by leaders taking refuge across the border. India has rejected the charge and reiterated its call for “free, fair and inclusive” elections in Bangladesh.

Let’s take a closer look.

India rejects Bangladesh’s charge

India on Wednesday (August 20) responded to Dhaka’s accusations that offices linked to the Awami League in Kolkata and New Delhi were involved in “anti-Bangladesh activities.”

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The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) called Dhaka’s allegations “misplaced,” underlining that no such activity is permitted from Indian soil.

“Many of the senior leaders of the Party, absconding in several criminal cases in Bangladesh on account of grievous crimes committed against humanity, remain in the Indian territory. Earlier, on 21 July 2025 evening, under the garb of an indescript NGO, some of the senior leaders of this banned Party planned to hold a public outreach at the Delhi Press Club and eventually distributed booklets among the attending members of the Press. To date, several reports in Indian media affirm increasing overtures of the Party while being on the Indian soil,” the Bangladesh foreign affairs ministry said in a statement earlier on Wednesday.

“This development also risks upholding the good-neighbourly relations with India driven by mutual trust and mutual respect, and lends serious implications for the political transformation underway in Bangladesh,” the statement read, warning that the issue “might also trigger public sentiment in Bangladesh, which may in turn impact the ongoing efforts of the two countries in further enhancing the relationship between the two closest neighbours.”

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“The government of Bangladesh, therefore, would urge the government of India to take immediate steps to ensure that no anti-Bangladesh activity is undertaken by any Bangladeshi national from being in the Indian soil…,” the statement added.

India has rejected Dhaka’s accusations, saying it had no knowledge of such activities and would not allow them under any circumstances. “The Government of India is not aware of any anti-Bangladesh activities by purported members of the Awami League in India or of any action that is contrary to Indian law. The Government does not allow political activities against other countries to be carried out from Indian soil,” the MEA said.

Describing Bangladesh’s allegation as “misplaced,” New Delhi reiterated the need for “free, fair and inclusive elections" at the earliest in the neighbouring country to “ascertain the will and mandate of the people.”

Our response to media queries on the Press Statement issued by the Interim Government of Bangladesh⬇️
🔗 https://t.co/XDLTjDUBuH pic.twitter.com/UvT2MgwN20

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) August 20, 2025

Does Awami League have offices in India?

Bangladesh’s allegations come amid some reports in the Bangladeshi press about a “discreet ‘party office’ of Bangladesh Awami League” in Kolkata that Indian intelligence agencies are “aware” of.

As per a BBC Bangla report, cited by Bangladesh’s The Business Standard, Hasina’s party office has been “operating for months” out of a commercial complex on the outskirts of Kolkata.

After student-led protests forced Sheikh Hasina to flee Bangladesh on August 5 last year and come to India, several Awami League and affiliated leaders also reportedly moved here, many of whom settled in and around Kolkata.

Since Hasina’s ouster, nearly 1,300 former ministers and the top and middle-level leaders of her party, its youth wing Jubo League, and its students’ wing Bangladesh Chhatra League, have been in self-exile in India and other parts of the world, as per ThePrint. 

Some have shifted to the US, Canada, Australia and other countries.

In May this year, Bangladesh banned all activities of the Awami League, including its online presence, under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

What do Awami League leaders do in India?

The Awami League leaders in India have mostly settled in New Town, a planned satellite city on the outskirts of Kolkata, reported ThePrint. They spend their time in offering namaz, going to gym or morning walks and attending online meetings with other party leaders and workers in Bangladesh and other parts of the world.

A former Awami League MP living in New Town told the digital outlet that he regularly meets former Bangladesh home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who he claimed has rented a spacious apartment in the area.

As per ThePrint, Khan, his wife and daughter are residing in Kolkata. He goes to Delhi every week for party meetings and to “meet high-level functionaries of the Indian establishment”.

Another former Awami League MP from Cox’s Bazar said, “I wake up at the crack of dawn and offer my Fajr prayers at the 3BHK apartment I share with another Awami League MP. Then we both head to the neighbourhood fitness studio, which is rather impressive. I do weight training while my flatmate has enrolled for Pilates classes.”

During the online evening meetings, the Awami League members share and analyse political news from their homeland and discuss their next move.

However, the leaders deny that they have an office in Kolkata.

“Yes, there is space we have rented in New Town where all of us meet. There are almost 1,300 party leaders in Kolkata. We can’t possibly meet at the former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal’s living room! But to call it an office would be a gross exaggeration,” Mohammad A Arafat, former Bangladesh Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, told ThePrint.

With inputs from agencies