Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said, "I'll be back home this year," signalling an end to her exile in India after nearly two years following the fall of her Awami League government amid a civil rebellion.
Speaking to NDTV, Hasina dismissed doubts over whether the Awami League could stage a political comeback despite an ongoing crackdown on its leaders and workers under the successive governments of Muhammad Yunus and BNP’s Tarique Rahman.
The Awami League recently observed its 77th Founding Day on June 23 in defiance of a nationwide ban, with dozens of activists arrested amid tight security.
Declaring that the Awami League was not a "paper organisation" but a "force", Hasina asserted that the party's return did not depend on the failures of its opponents. "The Awami League creates its own path with the people," she said.
She said the party's ability to transform people's aspirations into a political movement was rooted in the legacy of Bangladesh's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Hasina called both the caretaker administration led by Yunus and the newly elected BNP government unconstitutional, alleging that the present dispensation had come to power through a "staged election".
"There is no democracy. There is no rule of law. There is no security. The economy has weakened. Minorities are under attack. Extremism is spreading. Awami League leaders and activists are facing unimaginable state persecution," she said.
Despite the ban on the Awami League and the security crackdown, Hasina claimed that pro-party processions were taking place across Bangladesh every day, with ordinary citizens increasingly joining them.
"The conduct of the present government itself proves that they fear the organisational strength of the Awami League. That is why they deployed the army, Border Guards Bangladesh and police to stop the Awami League's founding anniversary programmes. This is a sign of their weakness," she said.
"The Awami League cannot be suppressed by force. A party that can create a people's awakening cannot be stopped through fear and intimidation," Hasina said, adding that this was precisely why the Yunus-led caretaker government had "knowingly and deliberately" banned her party's political activities and barred it from contesting elections, a decision that has since been continued by the BNP government.
Hasina argued that restoring a democratic environment in Bangladesh required the withdrawal of the ban on the Awami League, the dropping of what she termed false cases against party leaders and the release of political prisoners.
"But if those now occupying power continue to block even this minimum democratic path, the anger, pain and democratic aspirations accumulating among the people will create a new path for the Awami League," she said.
Responding to questions on the death sentence handed to her by the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka, Hasina termed the proceedings "illegal, unconstitutional and politically motivated".
"The judiciary has been turned into an instrument of political revenge to make the Awami League leaderless. Such attempts have been made before. They failed then, and they will fail again," she said.
She alleged that the ouster of her government was orchestrated by "anti-Bangladesh forces" that had misled the public.
Defending the Awami League's record in office, Hasina cited what she described as the government's economic and social achievements.
According to Hasina, Bangladesh recorded GDP growth of 7.25 per cent during her tenure, while foreign direct investment increased five-fold. She also claimed that poverty had fallen to 18.7 per cent and extreme poverty to 5.6 per cent.
She further said food grain production had increased four-fold, power generation capacity had risen eight-fold, and electricity coverage had reached the entire population.
Hasina also highlighted improvements in literacy, women's workforce participation and healthcare access, pointing to the establishment of nearly 15,000 community clinics across the country.
‘Attacks on minorities not a propaganda’
Hasina described reports of attacks on religious minorities in Bangladesh as "extremely painful and deeply worrying", accusing both the Yunus-led caretaker administration and the current BNP government of denying such incidents or dismissing them as political propaganda. She argued that this culture of denial had emboldened perpetrators and allowed attacks to continue unchecked.
The former prime minister claimed that Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, indigenous communities, Ahmadis and followers of Sufi traditions had remained unsafe since August 5, alleging that temples had been vandalised, homes looted and incidents of extortion, violence against women and disruption of religious ceremonies had continued. She also pointed to the continued imprisonment of minority rights advocate Chinmoy Krishna Das in what she termed a "false case".
Hasina was ousted from power on August 5, 2024, after a massive student-led uprising that began over civil service job quotas and snowballed into a nationwide anti-government movement. As protesters marched towards her official residence and the army refused to intervene, she fled to New Delhi by helicopter, where she has lived in exile ever since.