In her first public address since leaving Bangladesh in August 2024, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina launched a blistering attack on Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, accusing him of running an “illegal, violent” regime and plunging the country into terror, lawlessness and democratic exile.
Speaking via an audio message to a packed gathering at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in New Delhi, Hasina repeatedly described Yunus as a “murderous fascist,” “usurer,” “money launderer,” and “power-hungry traitor,” and urged her supporters to rise up to overthrow what she termed a “foreign-serving puppet regime” in Dhaka.
The event, titled Save Democracy in Bangladesh, was attended by several former ministers from Hasina’s Awami League government and members of the Bangladeshi diaspora.
“Bangladesh stands today at the edge of an abyss,” Hasina said, invoking the legacy of the Liberation War and her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. She claimed that since her ouster on August 5, 2024, the nation had been reduced to “a vast prison, an execution ground, a valley of death.”
Hasina alleged that democracy was now “in exile,” human rights had been trampled, press freedom extinguished, and violence against women and minorities allowed to flourish unchecked.
“Life and property have no security. Law and order has collapsed,” she told the audience, accusing the interim government of presiding over mob violence, looting and extortion across the country.
Reserving her harshest words for Yunus personally, Hasina accused him of betraying Bangladesh’s sovereignty and bartering away its territory and resources to foreign interests.
“By betraying the nation, the murderous fascist Yunus is pushing our beloved motherland toward disaster,” she said, warning of a “treacherous plot” against the country.
Calling for unity among what she termed “democratic, progressive and non-communal forces,” Hasina urged her supporters to restore the constitution “written in the blood of martyrs.” Her speech ended with chants of “Joy Bangla” and “Joy Bangabandhu.”
She also laid out five key demands, including:
The removal of what she called the “illegal Yunus administration” and the restoration of conditions for free and fair elections;
An end to street violence and lawlessness;
Guarantees for the safety of religious minorities, women and vulnerable groups;
An end to politically motivated “lawfare” against journalists and Awami League leaders;
A new and “truly impartial” United Nations investigation into the events since her removal from office.
“The international community stands with you,” Hasina told her supporters, asserting that the interim government had failed to listen to the people’s voice.
The address underscored the deep polarisation in Bangladeshi politics, with Hasina framing the current crisis not as a routine transition but as a civilisational struggle between the ideals of the Liberation War and what she called a regime of chaos, extremism and foreign manipulation.
It was her first public address in India since going into exile and signalled her intention to continue shaping Bangladesh’s political narrative from abroad.
