'2024 Bangladesh Protests Used To Create Path To Power Outside Ballot Box': Hasina Attacks Yunus in First Address Since Ouster

New Delhi: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, speaking in a virtual interaction with the media from Delhi, said she has watched her “beloved Bangladesh suffer” over the past two years and insisted the country today is not the one “we built” or the one for which three million people sacrificed their lives in 1971.

Hasina addressed the events of July and August 2024 directly, rejecting the characterisation of the protests as a peaceful student movement.

“It was not a peaceful student movement,” she said.

“From the beginning, my government tried to resolve the issue peacefully through dialogue, legal process, and patience. But behind the language of reform, organised groups were working to turn students’ demand into a violent political instrument,” she said.

She underlined her enduring connection to the country despite being forced into exile. “I speak as someone who has spent her life with the people of Bangladesh and was forced away from my country, but I was never separated from my people,” Hasina stated.

The former prime minister framed her remarks as an attempt to set out what she called “the truth” about the 2024 unrest, contrasting the official efforts at dialogue with what she described as organised efforts to escalate the situation.

Speaking on two years of the 2024 violent protest in Bangladesh, Hasina said, “Muhammad Yunus himself said this was a meticulously designed movement, led by a mastermind. His own words expose the truth. It was not simply a spontaneous student protest. There was no visible or responsible leadership, instructions were given invisibly; it was organised, directed and used to create a path to power outside ballot box…”

In statements released from exile, Hasina said the character of the protests shifted sharply from July 15.

“Killings, arson, attacks, and looting began. State property was destroyed. Bangladesh Television was attacked and set on fire,” she said.

She questioned the expectations placed on security forces amid the escalating violence: “In such a situation, what is the duty of law enforcement? When police stations are burned, government buildings are attacked, public infrastructure is destroyed, officers are killed, and weapons are looted, does the state have no duty to protect life and property?”

Hasina further alleged that the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, which she described as illegal, halted investigations into the events and prevented the full truth from emerging.