New Delhi, Aug. 5: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared that she will return to Bangladesh despite facing multiple criminal cases, saying that “fear cannot decide my duty to the people.”
Speaking virtually from New Delhi in her first press conference since being removed from office in August 2024, Hasina defended her government’s response to the July–August 2024 unrest and alleged that the anti-government protests were taken over by extremist and foreign-backed forces to overthrow her elected administration.
She claimed that what began as a student-led quota reform movement was transformed into a single-point campaign demanding her removal. Referring to Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus, Hasina alleged that the plan to remove her government had been disclosed by Yunus himself.
Rejecting allegations that her administration ordered indiscriminate violence against protesters, Hasina said security forces had exercised restraint while attempting to restore order. She maintained that her government sought to resolve the quota issue through dialogue, appealed the High Court’s ruling, and invited student leaders for talks, but alleged that organized groups exploited the movement to seize power outside the electoral process.
Hasina further claimed that the violence claimed the lives of police personnel, Awami League activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens, while coordinated attacks were carried out on government installations and security forces. She denied that her government was responsible for the bloodshed.
The former prime minister also said her administration established a judicial inquiry commission on July 18, 2024, to investigate every death and violent incident during the unrest. She alleged that the interim government halted the investigation after assuming office and questioned why the probe was stopped if justice was truly the objective.
Hasina further alleged that since her removal from power, thousands of Awami League leaders and supporters, police personnel, journalists, lawyers, judges, and members of minority communities have faced arrests, torture, and violence.
On the economy, she claimed Bangladesh’s economic conditions had deteriorated over the past year, alleging slower GDP growth, declining industrial production, rising loan defaults,increasing poverty, and weakening investment.
She also claimed the government had been borrowing between Tk 700 crore and Tk 900 crore every month from Bangladesh Bank to meet its expenditures, while many factories had shut down and numerous business owners had either fled the country or gone into hiding.
Reiterating her intention to return, Hasina said her comeback was “not about power” but about restoring “security, development, prosperity, and peace” and putting Bangladesh “back on the right track.”
Hasina, who has been in India since leaving Bangladesh following her ouster in August 2024, concluded by saying that history would ultimately judge the events surrounding her government’s fall and pledged to continue speaking out against what she described as an “unconstitutional seizure of power.”
