Sheikh Hasina vows to return to Bangladesh, says she may be detained or jailed but fear won’t decide her duty
Former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday vowed to return to Bangladesh, and said she may be detained or jailed but ‘fear can’t decide her duty’. “My return not about power, it’s about putting Bangladesh back on track of development, secularism. I know, they may put me in jail or kill me,” Sheikh Hasina said on her return to Bangladesh.
In a virtual interaction with the media in Delhi, former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina said she speaks as someone who has spent her life with the people of Bangladesh and was forced away from her country, but she was never separated from the people of Bangladesh. “I speak as someone who has spent her life with the people of Bangladesh and was forced away from my country, but I was never separated from my people…”
“Let me begin with the truth about July and August 2024. It was not a peaceful student movement. From the beginning, my government tried to resolve the issue peacefully through dialogue, legal process, and patience. But behind the language of reform, organised groups were working to turn students demand into violent political instrument,” she said.
While speaking on two years of 2024 violent protest in the country, Sheikh Hasina said, “Muhammad Yunus himself said this was a meticulously designed movement, led by a mastermind. His own words expose the truth. It was not simply a spontaneous student protest. There was no visible or responsible leadership, instructions were given invisibly; it was organised, directed and used to create a path to power outside ballot box…”
In the virtual interaction with the media, Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed said, “First of all, you have heard tagain and again that about the deaths during July on this protest of 2024. You have various counts on the numbers. You have the UN number of 1,400, whereas the government number is 800 something. Who are these additional 600 people? Where did the UN get those names? Our party has written to the UN. Our lawyers have written to the UN again and again. And today the UN has not provided any names. But more importantly, the UN only covers a period up to August 15 of 2024, but we know that the deaths continue, and what is most alarming, and this is something that I believe that the Press, the international Press, should really pay attention to. The Yunus regime, one of the first things they did was pass an Ordinance which became law, called the Indemnity Bill, indemnifying all the protesters, everyone, blanket immunity, protecting them from any prosecution for any killings, that includes killings of civilians, that includes killings of our party members, and that includes killings of police officers….This is unprecedented. How can you have blanket legal protection for killings by anyone, especially killing the Police officers? This is unprecedented. This is completely against all human rights, against all norms of decency.”
Sheikh Hasina added that in Bangladesh, fear has entered homes, work places and educational campuses and this is not the Bangladesh she had built. “The protests in July-Aug 2024 not peaceful student movement, organised groups worked to turn them to violent political instrument,” she said.
