Bangladesh’s ousted PM Hasina alleges 2024 protests were planned

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday publicly defended her handling of the 2024 anti-government uprising for the first time since fleeing the country.

She also ejected the widely held narrative that her removal followed a peaceful student-led protest movement and instead describing the unrest as a coordinated campaign aimed at overthrowing her government.

Speaking during a virtual interaction organized by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia from her exile in India, Hasina said the movement that began over reforms to Bangladesh’s public-sector job quota system had been transformed into what she described as a politically orchestrated campaign for regime change.

“It was not a peaceful student movement,” Hasina said. “From the beginning, my government tried to resolve the issue peacefully through dialogue, legal process and patience. But behind the language of reform, organized groups were working to turn students’ demands into a violent political instrument.”

Hasina said her administration attempted to resolve the dispute through negotiations with student representatives, legal measures and meetings involving senior ministers.

According to her, the movement later shifted from demands for quota reform to a single demand for her resignation, while what she described as a coordinated disinformation campaign manipulated students and fueled wider unrest.

“The quota reform movement was turned into a one-point demand for my resignation,” she said. “False propaganda was spread in a planned way. Genuine students were emotionally manipulated, while organized groups used their movement as cover for violence and regime change.”

She alleged that beginning on July 15, 2024, demonstrations escalated into attacks on public infrastructure, arson, killings and assaults on law enforcement personnel, arguing that the violence went far beyond legitimate political protest.

Hasina also cited remarks she attributed to Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus, claiming they showed the movement had been carefully designed rather than emerging spontaneously.

The former prime minister accused the interim administration of carrying out widespread political repression following her removal from office.

She alleged that thousands of Awami League leaders and supporters had been killed, disappeared or arbitrarily detained, while hundreds of thousands had been named in criminal cases.

She further claimed that a judicial commission established by her government to investigate the violence was discontinued after the change in power.

Hasina also alleged that Bangladesh’s political turmoil had been accompanied by attacks on symbols associated with the country’s 1971 independence struggle.

She said landmarks connected to the Liberation War, including the historic Dhanmondi 32 residence of Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had been destroyed in an effort to erase the country’s historical identity. She further alleged that minority communities and journalists had also come under attack.

Reflecting on her 15 years in office, Hasina defended her government’s economic record, saying Bangladesh maintained annual economic growth of between 6.5% and 7.5% while completing major infrastructure projects including the Padma Bridge, Dhaka Metro Rail, the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant and the Bangabandhu Tunnel.

She argued those investments transformed Bangladesh into what she described as a “Rising Tiger of Asia.”

Hasina also called for the interim authorities to lift the ban imposed on the Awami League, release detained party leaders and withdraw criminal cases filed against party members.

Ending the nearly hour-long interaction, the former prime minister announced that she intends to return to Bangladesh in December despite having been sentenced to death in absentia and facing multiple criminal cases.

“Whatever fate awaits me, I will return to my people,” she said. “They may kill me, put me in jail… I know I may get detained and politically motivated cases may be filed against me, but fear cannot decide my duty to the people.”

“I want to return because the people deserve security, development, prosperity and peace,” Hasina added. “My objective is not power. It is to help restore democracy and development.”