Will hold Hasina & her party responsible for any pre-poll violence: Dhaka

DHAKA: Bangladesh will hold Sheikh Hasina and her banned Awami League responsible for incidents of violence and terror in the run up to the Feb 12 Bangladesh parliamentary elections and on the election day, the Muhammad Yunus-led govt said Sunday, days after the former PM accused Yunus of pushing Bangladesh into an “era of terror, lawlessness and democratic exile”.

The Bangladesh foreign ministry said it was “surprised and shocked” that Hasina, who has been convicted (and given death sentence) by the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal for “crimes against humanity”, was allowed to make a statement at a public event in New Delhi last Friday.




“Bangladesh is deeply aggrieved that while India is yet to act on its obligations to hand Hasina over to Bangladesh under the bilateral extradition agreement despite repeated requests, she has instead been allowed to make such inciteful pronouncements from its own soil,” the ministry said in a statement.

In her first address — via audio message — to a gathering in Delhi since leaving Bangladesh in 2024, Hasina attacked Nobel laureate Yunus, accusing him of running an “illegal, violent” regime. She had said the political crisis in Bangladesh was an existential battle for the country’s sovereignty and constitution, and called on her supporters to rise up to “overthrow the foreign-serving puppet regime”.

“She has openly called for the removal of the Govt of Bangladesh and issued blatant incitements to her party loyalists and general public to carry out acts of terror in order to derail the upcoming general elections in Bangladesh,” the statement said. “The unabashed incitements by Awami League’s leadership yet again demonstrated why the interim govt had to ban its activities,” it said.

Bangladesh said it would hold this “outfit” responsible for committing incidents of violence and terror in the run up to the elections and on the election day, and will take appropriate actions to foil its evil conspiracies. It also said allowing the event to take place in the Indian capital and letting “mass murderer” Hasina to openly deliver her hate speech are contrary to the norms of inter-State relations.