Bangladesh’s exiled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has accused interim leader Muhammad Yunus of presiding over a government that “lacks control, credibility, and moral authority,” claiming Islamist factions have been allowed to expand their influence under his watch.
Writing from exile in India in an essay published by The Week, Hasina said the Yunus administration has “surrendered to extremist forces” and allowed groups linked to terrorist organizations to re-emerge in public life. She specifically mentioned Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical outfit banned in Bangladesh for inciting militancy, accusing it of “spreading hardline ideologies and oppression.”
“These are the same extremist forces responsible for the atrocious and deadly 2016 Holey Artisan Café attack,” Hasina wrote, recalling one of Bangladesh’s worst terror incidents. “We worked tirelessly to contain and root them out.”
“A Government Without Mandate or Accountability”
Hasina characterized the current interim setup as “an administration with no constitutional basis, no experience of governance, and no electoral mandate.” In her words, “Bangladesh is being ruled by an unaccountable elite who are carving the country up between themselves. They pay lip service to democracy while the people cry out for genuine elections.”
She accused the Nobel laureate–led interim authority of banning her Awami League, disenfranchising millions of citizens, and promoting what she described as “an unconstitutional charter” designed to entrench authoritarian control.
“True democracy cannot exist while our country is governed by a head of state with no electoral mandate,” Hasina wrote. “This so-called charter does not reflect the voices of the people of Bangladesh—it is nothing more than a political instrument designed to legitimize increasingly authoritarian rule under the guise of reform.”
“A Nation Living in Fear”
Hasina painted a dire picture of everyday life under the Yunus regime, asserting that “murder, rape, muggings, arson, lootings, and robberies have become the norm, and citizens are scared to leave their homes, while offenders go unpunished.”
She added, “In the first weeks of the Yunus administration’s rule, thousands of attacks targeting Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and indigenous people were reported. Still today we hear weekly reports of shrines, homes and places of worship needlessly destroyed.”
Citing data from local rights monitors, Hasina alleged a sharp rise in violence against women and girls: “Human rights groups such as Ain o Salish Kendra have reported a concerning rise in violence against women under the Yunus regime, with some 441 instances of rape recorded in the first six months of 2025 alone.”
“We Built a Country from the Rubble of 1971”
Reflecting on her political journey, Hasina linked her life’s mission to the legacy of her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding leader and first president.
“As the daughter of Bangladesh’s founding president, politics was an unconscious but inevitable part of my childhood,” she wrote. “My father led our country to a hard-fought independence from Pakistan in 1971, after years of oppression and a violent crackdown by West Pakistan’s brutal military forces.”
She said her father’s assassination in 1975 “ushered in a dark period of dictatorship and the reversal of our social and economic progress,” adding, “Assassination and dictatorship have both been recurring phantoms in our region’s politics—and I fear they loom over Bangladesh once again.”
“From Fragility to One of the Fastest-Growing Economies”
The former prime minister devoted a large portion of her essay to defending her government’s record on economic transformation. “When we came to office, our economy was fragile, our people had little hope and our infrastructure lagged far behind,” she wrote.
She credited “determination, discipline and hard work” for turning Bangladesh into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. “Our GDP climbed from USD 47 billion to nearly USD 600 billion, making Bangladesh one of the 35 largest economies in the world,” she said.
“Most of the credit for this goes to ordinary Bangladeshis, not to politicians,” Hasina added. “Millions were lifted out of absolute poverty, women entered the workforce in growing numbers, and foreign reserves grew to levels once unimaginable.”
She acknowledged, however, that “not everybody shared equally in the country’s improved fortunes” and that “mistakes were sometimes made in government.” But she insisted that “overall, our country was moving in the right direction.”
“Secularism Is Under Siege”
Hasina said that Bangladesh, once a “bastion of religious tolerance and secularism,” now faced sectarian recrimination and intimidation.
“Where once we were a compassionate country, welcoming refugees and protecting the vulnerable, now we are witnessing the systematic persecution of minorities,” she said. “Our secular and pluralistic culture—hard-fought and enshrined in our Constitution—is under direct attack.”
She warned that the return of extremist networks threatens to undo decades of progress in women’s rights, education, and international engagement: “The strain is visible in the decline of public services, the erosion of law and order, and the rise of fear.”
“The Judiciary and the Media Have Been Silenced”
Hasina accused the interim government of weaponizing the courts and crushing free expression. “Our judiciary has been reduced to little more than a puppet show of state-appointed lawyers and judges lacking the credibility or inclination to uphold impartial justice,” she wrote.
She alleged that “hundreds of journalists have had their press accreditation suspended and false charges brought against them because they are considered sympathetic to the former government.”
“Worse still,” she said, “several senior journalists have been detained on false murder charges, held in solitary confinement and had further charges brought against them with limited access to lawyers.”
Hasina also condemned the ongoing trials of her party leaders at the International Crimes Tribunal as “a rigged and illegitimate show trial designed to criminalize political opposition.”
“Only the People Can Decide Bangladesh’s Future”
The exiled premier called for an immediate return to free, participatory elections. “Bangladesh must establish a genuine tradition of participatory elections,” she wrote. “Only then can we break the cycle of manipulation, boycott, and exclusion that has defined too much of our political history.”
She argued that holding a national vote without the participation of the Awami League would “set a troubling precedent” and “lead Bangladesh away from the democratic principles on which it was founded.”
“There can be no hope for democracy when innocent supporters and members of a political party are arbitrarily detained simply because of their political allegiance,” she said. “Thousands of spurious cases have been filed, hundreds detained on fabricated charges, and over 200 have died in custody at the hands of the interim administration.”
“We Were Building a Future—Now It’s Being Torn Apart”
Hasina wrote that the current crisis is not just political but moral: “The truth is that Dr Yunus is not really in control at all. His lack of governance experience is woefully apparent to ordinary Bangladeshis, forced to endure lawlessness and the removal of public services.”
She accused the regime of “pretending to restore democracy while undermining its very foundations,” asserting that “the people of Bangladesh are not fooled—they know what legitimacy looks like, and this administration has none.”
She concluded with an appeal for collective memory and moral clarity: “Bangladesh is a great country with a proud history. Yet we are at a pivotal crossroads, fighting for democratic integrity, constitutional freedoms and fundamental human rights. We are a country that has overcome genocide and military rule in the past—and at every setback, we have returned to democracy.”
“I pray that my country once again returns to true democracy,” she said. “That we get back to the economic growth of recent decades, afford women, girls, and religious minorities the same rights as anyone else, end the violence, and enable every Bangladeshi to have a voice in our public life once again.”
