External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s stay in India is a personal decision and that she can stay as long as she wants, shaped by the circumstances that forced her to flee Dhaka last year.

Hasina, who led Bangladesh for 15 years, escaped to India in August last year amid nationwide violence that killed hundreds and left thousands injured. The 78-year-old was sentenced to death in absentia last month by a special tribunal for “crimes against humanity" linked to her government’s crackdown on student-led protests.

Asked whether India would allow her to stay “as long as she wants," Jaishankar told NDTV:

“She came here in a certain circumstance, and that circumstance is clearly a factor in what happens to her. But that is some

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