Deposed Bangladesh PM Hasina blames Yunus for lawlessness in country

Deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has accused Bangladesh's interim government chief Muhammad Yunus for the lawlessness in the country and said he has unleashed terrorists on its people.

The 16-year-long Hasina's Awami League regime was toppled in a students' uprising on August 5, 2024 when she fled Bangladesh for India.

He (Yunus) dissolved all inquiry committees and unleashed terrorists to butcher people. They are destroying Bangladesh, Hasina said during a virtual interaction with widows and children of slain police officers killed during the July-August violent anti-government protests in 2024.

During the conversations, which appeared on social media on Tuesday, Hasina is seen consoling the mourning family members saying she was expecting to return home and avenge the killings.

I will return and avenge the deaths of our policemen, she said and added that when her government was toppled, she too narrowly escaped death, by the grace of God, who definitely kept her alive to do something good.

Yunus has no experience in running a government, the deposed prime minister said adding, We need to put an end to this lawlessness.

The virtual conversation, via Zoom, was moderated by the party's Europe Chapter Nazrul Islam.

In earlier social media appearances, Hasina had accused Yunus of hatching a long, and well-designed plot to oust her government and grab the state power.

Last week, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) released a report titled Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh' said that the unrest claimed some 1,400 lives. 

The report covered the period from July 1 to August 15 during the violent agitation by protesting students who wanted Hasina's ouster followed by days of attacks against Awami League supporters and minorities, including Hindus.

It also documents that Hasina's Awami League government had cracked down on protesters and others resulting in hundreds of extrajudicial killings.

Also, at least 44 policemen, including officers, were killed during the unrest, said the police headquarters, now largely restructured under the interim government.

In the run up to and after the fall of Awami League regime, 450 out of the country's 639 police stations were destroyed or damaged in mob attacks, the UN report said.

After Sheikh Hasina left the country on August 5 last year, revenge violence surged, the OHCHR report said, adding that violent mobs stormed and burned down numerous police stations.

In many cases, the UN rights office said, police officers fled or were allowed to leave by their superiors and in other cases some officers were lynched or otherwise killed.