Dhaka, July 22 (IANS) Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday alleged that the country entered a “dangerous phase” following the July-August 2024 political upheaval as the elected Awami League government was overthrown through a “meticulously designed movement” orchestrated by former interim government chief advisor Muhammad Yunus under the guise of the quota reform protests.
Addressing an international strategic dialogue titled, ‘Reinventing Bangladesh: A World Crisis to Overcome’, Hasina alleged that violent extremists were active participants, organisers, and beneficiaries of the 2024 protests.
She said that the extremist leaders had begun to re-emerge in public life during the 2024 July protests and alleged that their strategy was to “create dead bodies, create outrage, and the government will fall.”
Hasina accused interim government chief Yunus, current Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman and radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami of pursuing the demonstrations with that objective, describing it as “a meticulously designed operation” and not a spontaneous student protest.
“460 police stations were burned down by these outlaws, leading to a collapse in law enforcement in many places. Policemen were brutally murdered and hanged from over-bridges. Prisons were attacked. Convicted and accused militants escaped or were released on bail. All the terrorists, killers, those who were in jail were released like the leaders of banned terrorist organisations Ansarullah Bangla Team, Hizb ut Tahrir, Harkat ul Jihad and Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh,” stated Hasina.
Referring to the widespread violence against minorities across Bangladesh, she said, “Religious institutions of Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Ahmaddiyas and Sufi shrines and dargahs and other minority religious sects, socio-cultural institutions were attacked and destroyed. Not only institutions, but people were also not spared. This was an assault on the historic religious harmony of Bangladesh.”
Alleging a complete breakdown of law and order in the country since August 2024, Hasina claimed that a former Chief Justice of the country was implicated in “false cases”, handcuffed and sent to prison. She further stated that the Chief Justice and several other judges were attacked with “machetes, Chinese axes, sticks and firearms” before being forced to resign.
“You can imagine in a country where lawyers, journalists, cultural activists and my party Bangladesh Awami League activists have been beaten to death, hacked with sharp weapons, arrested, tortured; Women and girls have also been raped and killed, an environment of terror has been unleashed,” the former PM added.
Hasina asserted that Bangladesh’s economy had been devastated over the last two years, noting that the progress achieved under her government had been destroyed.
“Poverty has been increasing; now people’s lives are in danger, and they have no security in their homes or on the streets. But those who are in power are enjoying the power, making money, and they don’t bother about people. Even 100s of children died because they couldn’t get their vaccine,” she stated, highlighting the grim situation in the country.
–IANS
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