Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in exile in New Delhi since August 2024, said that Bangladesh has become “a vast prison, an execution ground”. Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said that her country was “bleeding” and “on edge of abyss”, saying that the homeland won under her father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was “now ravaged by the monstrous onslaught of extremist communal forces and foreign perpetrators”.
Addressing an event in New Delhi in an online audio message, Hasina, who has been living in exile in the Indian capital since fleeing Dhaka in August 2024, said that Bangladesh has become “a vast prison, an execution ground, a valley of death”.
“Bangladesh stands today at the edge of an abyss, a nation battered and bleeding, navigating one of the most perilous chapters in its history. The homeland won through the supreme Liberation War under the leadership of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is now ravaged by the monstrous onslaught of extremist communal forces and foreign perpetrators. Our once serene and fertile land has been reduced to a wounded, blood-soaked landscape. In truth, the entire country has become a vast prison, an execution ground, a valley of death,” Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina, who was ousted by a mass student uprising, called chief advisor Mohammed Yunus, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government that replaced hers, “a usurer, money launderer, plunderer, and a corrupt, power-hungry traitor”. “Everywhere one hears only the cries of people struggling to survive amid destruction. A desperate plea for life. Heart-rending screams for relief. The murderous fascist Yunus, a usurer, a money launderer, a plunderer, and a corrupt, power-hungry traitor, has bled our nation dry with his all-consuming paradigms, staining the soul of our motherland,” she said.
She also claimed that she was thrown out of power by Yunus, whom she went on to call a “murderous fascist”, and his “anti-state militant accomplices”. “On August 5, 2024, in a meticulously engineered conspiracy, the national enemy, the murderous fascist Yunus, and his anti-state militant accomplices forcibly ousted me, though I am the people’s representative directly elected. From that day forward, the nation has been plunged into an age of terror, merciless, relentless, and suffocating. Democracy is now in exile,” Hasina added.
The Awami League supremo and her party has been banned from contesting the upcoming national elections in Bangladesh, scheduled for February 12. She said justice has eroded in the country and that it was facing “lawlessness, insecurity, and persecution of minorities”. “The country is facing lawlessness, insecurity, and persecution of minorities, with mob violence, looting, and extremism spreading nationwide. Institutions have weakened, justice has eroded, and fear dominates daily life amid allegations of betrayal of national interests. In this crisis, there is a call for unity to defend the Constitution, restore democracy, protect sovereignty, and resist what is described as an unelected and violent regime,”the ex-PM said.
In an earlier audio message shared on the Awami League Facebook page on Friday, Sheikh Hasina launched a scathing attack on rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is the front runner for the upcoming February elections.
Hasina reminded that she had never banned the BNP and had even invited late Khalida Zia to fight elections together in 2014, a proposal which she claimed was rejected.”Regarding the 2024 election, they said they wouldn’t participate. We tried to bring them in, but they didn’t come; they boycotted it. Awami League contested and came through. To this day, regarding the questions they raise about this election—have they been able to show that a single irregularity occurred? Or that there was violence or killings at any polling center? They can’t show anything.But there are allegations. And Dr. Yunus has money; he is using that money to spread propaganda/disinformation all over the world,” Hasina said in the audio message.
