Bangladesh slams India over fugitive ex-PM Hasina’s first public address

Dhaka says it is ‘shocked’ the ousted person was allowed to talk astatine a quality conference, her archetypal since the 2024 ouster.

Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it is “surprised and shocked” that fugitive erstwhile Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been allowed to marque a nationalist code successful neighbouring India, wherever she fled successful 2024.

“Allowing the lawsuit to instrumentality spot successful the Indian superior and letting wide murderer Hasina openly present her hatred code … represent a wide affront to the radical and the Government of Bangladesh,” the ministry said successful a connection connected Sunday astir the code – Hasina’s archetypal since she was ousted.

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Hasina, 78, has lived successful exile successful India since August 2024 erstwhile a student-led uprising ended her 15-year rule, which was marked by allegations of wide rights violations, including attacks, imprisonment and targeted killings of absorption figures, dissenters and critics.

She was sentenced to decease successful absentia by a Dhaka tribunal successful November for incitement, issuing an bid to termination and inaction to forestall atrocities during her government’s crackdown connected the 2024 uprising, successful which much than 1,400 radical were killed.

In an audio code played connected Friday to a packed Foreign Correspondents’ Club successful New Delhi, Hasina accused Muhammad Yunus, the caput of Bangladesh’s interim government, of being a “murderous fascist” and said Bangladesh would “never acquisition escaped and just elections” nether him. More than 100,000 radical watched the address, which was broadcast online.

Bangladesh is scheduled to clasp its archetypal general election since Hasina’s removal connected February 12. Her Awami League enactment is banned from participating successful the ballot aft the Election Commission suspended its registration successful May.

The Foreign Ministry’s connection said Hasina “openly called for the removal” of the interim authorities and issued “blatant incitements to her enactment loyalists and the wide nationalist to transportation retired acts of terror” to derail the upcoming election.

The ministry added that her code acceptable a “dangerous precedent” that could “seriously impair bilateral relations” with India, which has truthful acold ignored Bangladesh’s petition to extradite Hasina.

Hasina’s code came arsenic Bangladesh, location to 170 cardinal people, gears up for the polls. The frontrunners are the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and a conjugation of parties led by Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim-majority country’s largest Islamist party.