SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
New Delhi: Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday, August 5, declared that she is determined to return home in December, pledging to face the risk of arrest or a death sentence, in order to “restore democracy and justice” to the country.
Hasina said this at a virtual press conference in her first public media interaction since fleeing to India on August 5, 2024.
“My return is not about power, it’s about putting Bangladesh back on track of development, secularism and prosperity,” she said.
“I know, they may put me in jail or kill me,” Hasina, 78, has been living in India since fleeing Dhaka. “I have decided to go and I will go to Bangladesh. The date of my return will be announced later,” she asserted.
She also demanded that the ban on her party, the Bangladesh Awami League, be lifted, false cases against her and her partymen be dropped, and freedom of speech be restored in Bangladesh.
Hasina said the situation in Bangladesh is very disturbing.
Recalling the events of the past two years, the former Bangladesh PM said she has watched her “beloved Bangladesh suffer”. Accusing organised groups of exploiting the July-August 2024 student protests to serve a political agenda, she claimed the movement was not a peaceful campaign for reform but was transformed into a tool for violence.
“Fear has entered homes, work places and educational campuses; this is not the Bangladesh we built. I call upon the international community to stand with the people of Bangladesh in their struggle for democracy and justice.”
Hasina alleged that the protests in Bangladesh in July and August 2024 that resulted in the collapse of her government were not a peaceful student movement. She claimed that Chief Advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus’s own description of the July 2024 protests being a “meticulously designed movement led by a mastermind” revealed the organised nature of the unrest.
“For the last two years, I watched my beloved Bangladesh suffer… This is not the Bangladesh we built; this is not the Bangladesh for which three million people sacrificed their lives in 1971. 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’ demands into violent political instruments.”
“I was forced away from my country but I am never separated from my people,” she said.
The former Bangladesh prime minister also hailed India for always standing by Bangladesh. “India has always been a great friend of Bangladesh,” she said.
Last November, Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia by a special tribunal in Dhaka for alleged “crimes against humanity” over her government’s brutal crackdown on student-led protests in 2024.
Since that verdict, Dhaka has been urging New Delhi to extradite her to face the law.
(With inputs from agencies)
SOURCE : SIASAT
