Foreign powers like US behind my ouster: Indian media quotes Hasina
In what is being called in Indian media to be her first statement since resigning and fleeing the country on August 5, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has accused foreign powers like the US of playing a hand in her ouster.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Indian news outlet The Print in an article today said it had seen the message conveyed to Hasina's Awami League supporters. India's Economic Times also carried an article about the message, which The Daily Star has not been able to independently verify.
"I could have remained in power if I had left St Martin and the Bay of Bengal to America," she said in the message.
According to The Print, the Hasina government saw strained relations with the US for many years. Ahead of January's elections this year, she said "a white man" had offered her a smooth return to power in exchange for an airbase.
Hasina also warned the new interim government not to be "used" by such foreign powers.
Led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, the new interim government was sworn in on Thursday night, three days after Hasina's ouster.
"I resigned so that I did not have to see the procession of dead bodies. They wanted to come to power over your [students'] bodies, I did not allow it. I came with power," read Hasina's statement.
"Maybe if I was in the country today, more lives would have been lost, more wealth would have been destroyed," she added.
She is also expected to address the media while in India next week, The Print article said.
Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled Bangladesh on August 5, when a student-led protest culminated in a mass uprising against her Awami League government.
More than 400 people were killed in the preceding three weeks, a majority of them in police firing and firing by Awami League activists.
The US is Bangladesh's largest foreign direct investor.
In her message to supporters and party cadres, she vowed to return to the country, though accepting her defeat.
"I will return soon inshAllah. The defeat is mine but the victory is [that of] the people of Bangladesh," she stated.
"I removed myself, I came with your victory, you were my strength, you did not want me, I myself then left, resigned. My workers who are there, no one will lose morale. Awami League has stood up again and again," she added, according to The Print.
The former prime minister also accused people of distorting her words.
"I want to repeat to my young students, I never called you Razakars … My words have been distorted. A group has taken advantage of your danger," she said in the message.
The term "Razakar" is considered to be derogatory in Bangladesh as it refers to 'volunteers' who collaborated with the Pakistan Army during Bangladesh's 1971 war for independence.
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