Sheikh Hasina warns Bangladesh risks return to ‘dark days’, vows comeback

Bangladesh's former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has warned that the country risks slipping back into the “dark days” of 2001 to 2006, when the BNP was in power, citing the growing influence of militant and extremist forces. She made the remarks in an email interview. Hasina, who has been living in self-imposed exile in India since the fall of her Awami League government following student-led protests in 2024, also said she plans to return to Bangladesh “very soon.”

However, she suggested that her return would depend on the restoration of political rights and the creation of a democratic environment. The Awami League remains banned in Bangladesh, while Hasina has been sentenced to death by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal.

Vow to return

Reflecting on her historic return from exile on May 17, 1981, Hasina made the remarks in an email interview with HT that her current return does not depend on a specific date but rather on the restoration of a democratic environment, freedom of expression, and the rule of law. Despite surviving 19 assassination attempts and currently facing a death sentence from Dhaka's International Crimes Tribunal, she vowed to return "very soon."

Addressing the interim government's ban on the Awami League, Hasina dismissed it as a "temporary exercise of power" rooted in fear. She asserted that the Awami League is a party born from the masses, not from the "power of guns," and historical precedents show it routinely returns stronger. She noted that millions of grassroots supporters and leaders remain unified within Bangladesh despite ongoing arrests and persecution.

Party reforms and exiled leadership

When questioned about internal pushes for an "Awami League minus Sheikh Hasina," she stated that leadership is strictly determined by ideological activists through internal democratic procedures, not by the "prescriptions of conspirators." While acknowledging that the party never tolerates individual wrongdoing, she warned that rival political opponents frequently use the guise of "purification" to fracture opposition parties.

Defending party members who fled the country, Hasina rejected the idea that they left voluntarily. She accused Muhammad Yunus’s interim government of executing a "silent political genocide," claiming nearly 600 activists were killed, 150,000 arrested on false charges, and thousands of pro-liberation state officials dismissed. She affirmed these exiled leaders are actively building international public opinion and will return once basic safety is guaranteed.

Economic deterioration

Hasina fiercely criticised the handling of the economy, comparing her administration's developmental track record with that of recent regimes. She highlighted that under her four terms since 2008, the national budget expanded from 70,000 crore taka to 797,000 crore taka, while per capita income rose from $482 to $2,784, driving mega-projects like the Padma Bridge.

Conversely, she stated that the Yunus-led interim setup and the subsequent government under Prime Minister Tarique Rahman have driven the economy to the brink of collapse. She cited widespread mob violence that shuttered major industrial units, record-low foreign investment, and massive borrowing, amounting to 373,000 crore taka over 18 months by the interim setup, and nearly 100,000 crore taka in just three months under the BNP. This has triggered acute shortages of electricity, oil, gas, and fertilisers alongside skyrocketing commodity inflation.

Geopolitical shifts and regional security

Finally, Hasina expressed profound concern over Bangladesh's shifting foreign policy. While reiterating the Awami League's constitutional commitment to "friendship with all, malice toward none," she condemned the rising anti-India rhetoric used as a political tool by the Yunus and BNP administrations.

Most critically, she warned of a resurgence in cross-border terrorism and militancy, drawing parallels to the 2001–2006 BNP-Jamaat alliance era when Bangladesh became a safe haven for extremists. She pointed out that since August 2024, top convicted terrorists have been released from prison, and individuals tied to militancy have entered Parliament, presenting an immediate threat to regional security.