Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, currently taking refuge in India, has broken her silence by accusing foreign powers like the US of playing a hand in her ouster.
This comes days after the Indian government said it was analysing the possibility of a “foreign hand” behind the political crisis in Bangladesh, according to Indian media outlet ThePrint on Sunday.
“I could have remained in power if I had left St. Martin and the Bay of Bengal to America,” she said in a message conveyed to her Awami League supporters Saturday, seen by it.
The outlet said the Hasina government saw strained relations with the US for many years. Ahead of January’s elections this year, she said “a white man” had offered her a smooth return to power in exchange for an airbase.
In her latest statement, Hasina, the longest-serving prime minister in Bangladesh’s history, warned the new interim government not be “used” by such foreign powers.
ThePrint wrote ‘The 17-member advisory council, which includes four members who lean towards the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and three affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami, took oath Thursday night. The Bangladesh Parliament was dissolved earlier this week, after army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation shortly after she fled the country.”
“I resigned so that I did not have to see the procession of dead bodies. They wanted to come to power over your (students’) bodies, I did not allow it. I came with power,” read Hasina’s statement.
“Maybe if I was in the country today, more lives would have been lost, more wealth would have been destroyed,” she added.
She is also expected to address the media while in India next week.
Over 300 people died in weeks-long student protests against Hasina. The US, UK Canada and other countries have called for investigations into the deaths of students. With the new interim government in Dhaka, Washington said it hopes it will “chart a democratic future” in Bangladesh.
The report said Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, leading the new interim government, is believed to have strong ties with the US. In the past, he has held frequent meetings with American diplomats to “bemoan” the state of Bangladeshi politics, according to WikiLeaks cables.
The US is also Bangladesh’s largest foreign direct investor.
‘I will return soon’
In her message to supporters and party cadres, she vowed to return to the country, though accepting her defeat.
“I will return soon inshallah. The defeat is mine but the victory is [that of] the people of Bangladesh,” she stated.
“I removed myself, I came with your victory, you were my strength, you did not want me, I myself then left, resigned. My workers who are there, no one will lose morale. Awami League has stood up again and again,” she added.
The former prime minister also accused people of distorting her words.
“I want to repeat to my young students, I never called you Razakars…My words have been distorted. A group has taken advantage of your danger,” she said in the message.The term ‘Razakar’ is considered to be derogatory in Bangladesh as it refers to ‘volunteers’ who collaborated with the Pakistan Army during Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence, said the report.