 "Bangladesh's former PM Sheikh Hasina has mounted a fresh attack on Muhammad Yunus and termed him a 'militant leader'. File image/AFP")
Former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina slammed the country’s interim Chief Adviser, Muhammad Yunus, dismissing his pledge to hold elections by April 2026 . In her audio message to her supporters, Hasina reiterated that Yunus is “selling the country and making money out of it”.
Yunus took the task of rebuilding Bangladesh after a violent protest toppled the Sheikh Hasina government. However, several parties in Bangladesh have called out the Nobel laureate for not conducting the elections by 2025. While Yunus argued that he needs to usher in reforms before holding polls, his critics claim that he is trying to delay elections to stay in power.
In her address to her party, Awami League, Hasina said that Yunus is plotting to fool the country on April Fool’s Day. The remarks from the former Bangladeshi premier came days after Yunus announced that he plans to hold elections by April 2026. “I did not sell the country. Yunus is selling the country and making money. This government is backed by Jamaat [Jamaat-e-Islami]. They don’t have the guts to fight me,” Hasina said in her audio message, which was shared by her party, Awami League.
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“They have said the election will take place in April. This is nothing but the plot of making an April Fool’s joke,” she explained. In her 1-hour-long audio message, Hasina frequently referred to Yunus as “radical and extremists”. She even slammed ex-PM Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), accusing them of looting the country.
‘I will be back’: Hasina
In her statement to her party and supporters, Hasina pointed out the atrocities committed against the people of Bangladesh under Yunus’s regime. “Yunus is committing murders and members of the Awami League are getting prosecuted,” she exclaimed, commenting on how every member of her family is facing legal charges in the country.
“BNP is busy looting the people and Jamaat is busy killing and getting its people inside the government,” she remarked. In her message to the supporters, Hasina pledged to return to the country and shared her vision of a “Smart Bangladesh by 2041”. “I will come back, the country will stand again, and we will free our nation from these radicals for the good of the people,” she said.
Hasina slammed the Yunus government for banning her party Awami League , from contesting in the polls. She even gave an open challenge to the current regime to put the party on the ballot. “If they want to hold polls, allow us to contest. Let’s see who the people of Bangladesh want. But they won’t do that because they don’t have the guts to fight against us,” she added.
India dismisses Yunus’s request to stop Hasina from making statements
Interestingly, Hasina’s address to her supporters came shortly after Yunus claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ignored his request to stop the ex-Bangladeshi premier from making political statements while in India.
Yunus was sharing his takeaways from a meeting with PM Modi while speaking at the Chatham House in London. He pledged to continue with his efforts to extradite Hasina from India so that she can face looming charges against her in Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, which recently indicted her for ordering a police crackdown on protestors last year.
“When I had a chance to speak with Prime Minister Modi, I simply said, ‘You want to host her — I cannot force you to abandon that policy. But please help us ensure that she does not address the Bangladeshi people the way she currently is,’” Yunus said while addressing the audience at the London-based think tank.
Yunus mentioned that he requested his meeting with PM Modi on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok this April. “She announces that she will speak on a particular day and at a particular time, and the whole of Bangladesh becomes very angry."
“Modi’s answer — and I quote — was: ‘It is social media; we cannot control it.’ What can you say? This is an explosive situation, and you can’t simply walk away by saying it’s social media. Yet this continues,” Yunus furthered. India is yet to respond to Yunus’s accusations.