Exiled former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has delivered a scathing condemnation of Muhammad Yunus, the chief adviser of the nation’s interim government, branding him a “murderous fascist,” “usurer,” “money launderer,” “plunderer,” and “corrupt, power-hungry traitor.” In a recorded address played at the “Save Democracy in Bangladesh” event organised by the Foreign Correspondents Club in India, Hasina insisted that Yunus must be removed immediately if genuine democracy is to be restored.
Hasina argued that credible, free, and fair elections remain impossible under Yunus’s leadership. She maintained that only his departure would allow the process of returning power to the people to begin—a step that would necessarily include participation by her Awami League party. The interim authorities have imposed a ban on the Awami League, barring it from contesting the parliamentary elections scheduled for February 12.
Issued just three weeks before the polls, Hasina’s message also highlighted persistent daily violence across Bangladesh. She pressed for a robust, “iron-clad guarantee” to safeguard religious minorities, women, and girls from further harm.
Calling on Bangladeshis to persist in their pursuit of democratic restoration, Hasina opened her remarks by painting a grim picture of the nation’s current state. She described Bangladesh as standing “at the edge of an abyss,” a country “battered and bleeding” amid one of its darkest historical moments. The land, she said—forged through the sacrifices of the Liberation War—now lies devastated by “extremist communal forces and foreign perpetrators,” transformed into “a vast prison, an execution ground, a valley of death.”
Addressing the events of August 5, 2024, when a student-led uprising compelled her to flee Dhaka and seek shelter in India, Hasina characterised her removal as a “meticulously engineered conspiracy” masterminded by the “murderous fascist Yunus and his anti-state militant accomplices.” She labelled the present administration a “foreign-serving puppet regime.” In defence of her party, she portrayed the Awami League as independent Bangladesh’s oldest and most essential political organisation, steadfastly committed to upholding the Constitution, political pluralism, and religious tolerance.
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The interim government has previously expressed strong objections to Hasina’s appearances in Indian media, including interviews and published pieces. Diplomatic tensions arose when Bangladesh summoned India’s deputy high commissioner to protest her continued access to such platforms.
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