College students protest close to a vandalized mural of Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, demanding accountability for Hasina, close to Dhaka College on Monday.
Luis Tato/AFP through Getty Pictures
conceal caption
toggle caption
Luis Tato/AFP through Getty Pictures
DHAKA, Bangladesh — In her first assertion since fleeing Bangladesh final week, the nation’s former prime minister denied duty for the deaths of greater than 300 individuals throughout protests that led to her ouster.
Sheikh Hasina issued her assertion in Bengali on Tuesday by way of her son, Sajeeb Wazed. He has has often taken to social media since his mom and aunt left Bangladesh in a army helicopter as tens of 1000’s of protesters marched onto her residence on Aug. 5.
Her assertion got here hours after a Bangladeshi court docket ordered police to open a homicide investigation into her and 6 prime figures from her authorities. The case entails the demise of a grocery store proprietor as police cracked down on protesters on July 19.
It marks the primary authorized case in opposition to Hasina. Extra are anticipated.
Rizwana Hasan, a member of Bangladesh’s new interim authorities, led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus and shaped days after Hasina fled the nation, mentioned, “For the sake of the victims, we will strive to make sure that no delay takes place within the investigation of those allegations.”
“The federal government feels the pressures of guaranteeing correct justice,” mentioned Hasan, referring to the households of protesters and others who have been killed. “So we will step in and be certain that correct proof is collected, that the household doesn’t really feel intimidated for submitting,” she advised journalists.
The coed-led motion to take away Hasina from energy started as peaceable protests in opposition to job quotas for the descendants of conflict veterans. College students mentioned the quotas have been getting used handy over profitable authorities positions to cronies. Loyalists of the previous prime minister attacked protesters, after which police and a few paramilitary forces joined the fray, killing dozens. This helped rework the protests right into a mass motion to oust the previous prime minister.
In her assertion on Tuesday, Hasina blamed the protest deaths on “vandalism, arson and violence” instigated by “the motion,” referring to the student-led protests. She additionally claimed individuals died “because of terrorist assaults.”
“I demand that these concerned on this killing and vandalism be correctly investigated and the culprits be recognized and punished accordingly,” she mentioned.
Hasina mentioned she was additionally demanding justice after rioters burned down the home of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to independence in 1971. That home was transformed right into a museum.
In her assertion, the previous prime minister referred to the assassination of her father and far of her household in that very same home throughout a coup on Aug. 15, 1975. Hasina and her sister have been overseas on the time. “And the reminiscence that was the premise of our survival has been burnt to ashes,” the previous prime minister wrote, referring to the torched house. “I would like justice from the countrymen.”
Hasina referred to as on Bangladeshis to look at this Aug. 15, as soon as a nationwide day of mourning, “with due dignity and solemnity.”
Her name got here after the interim authorities introduced that there can be no public vacation on Thursday, successfully denying an opportunity to supporters of the previous prime minister to collect round her former household house.
