'Students emotionally manipulated, July 2024 protest was to grab power': Ex-Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday launched a scathing attack against the current regime led by PM Tarique Rahman. Hasina also said that the July 2024 protest was planned and students were emotionally manipulated by the opposition. Breaking her silence on the protest that made her flee the country, Hasina alleged that July-August unrest 'was not a peaceful student movement', but an organised campaign. She alleged that the opposition weaponised quota reform protests into a 'violent political instrument' aimed at regime change.

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Addressing a virtual media interaction organised by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia in New Delhi, the former Prime Minister reflected on the turmoil in Bangladesh, expressing anguish over the country's trajectory. "For the last two years, I watched my beloved Bangladesh suffer...This is not the Bangladesh we built; this is not the Bangladesh for which 3 million people sacrificed their lives in 1971," Hasina said.

Referring directly to the mid-2024 protests, Hasina said her government had sought to resolve the quota reform agitation through dialogue, legal processes, and negotiations, but alleged that 'organised groups' exploited the movement to advance their political objectives.

"Let me begin with the truth about July and August 2024. It was not a peaceful student movement. 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' demands into a violent political instrument," she added.

Hasina said that the quota reform movement was turned into a one-point demand for her resignation. "False propaganda was spread in a planned way. Genuine students were emotionally manipulated, while organised groups used their movement as cover for violence and regime change," she alleged.

The former prime minister alleged that the protests, which intensified from July 15, 2024, descended into widespread violence marked by killings, arson, attacks on public infrastructure, and assaults on law enforcement personnel. She further claimed that, following her ouster, leaders and workers of the Awami League were subjected to systematic political persecution, alleging that thousands had been killed, disappeared, or detained, while hundreds of thousands had been named in criminal cases. Hasina also accused the interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus of halting a judicial inquiry set up by her government to investigate the violence.

Hasina, who has said she intends to return to Bangladesh in December despite having been sentenced to death, was making her first media appearance since fleeing to India on August 5, 2024. Her departure brought to an end her 15-year tenure as prime minister following the nationwide anti-government movement that began in June 2024.