‘If you play with fire…,’ Sheikh Hasina warns Muhammad Yunus

After the recent warrant issued against former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the ousted PM has warned the country’s interim head Muhammad Yunus saying, “If you play with fire, it will burn you too."

She has accused Yunus of hatching a foreign conspiracy to destroy Bangladesh.

In her latest address to the Awami League supporters on social media, the former premier said, “All signs of Bangladesh’s freedom movement are being removed. Mukti Joddhas (freedom fighters) are being insulted. We had built Mukti Joddha Complexes in all districts to keep their memory alive, but those are being burnt down. Will Yunus be able to justify this?”

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami are carrying out (political) murders and harassing Awami League leaders, she alleged.

The ousted PM who has taken refuge in India after August 5, 2024, following her government’s downfall in Bangladesh after unprecedented student protests over the reservation row, said the end of Awami League’s regime has given an “industrial shock" to Bangladesh. “Thousands of factories have been shut. Those linked to Awami League leaders have been burnt down. Industries are being finished. Hotels, hospitals, everything is being destroyed," she said.

“Awami League leaders are being framed for the death of vandals. Those who burnt down police stations and beat cops to death are not being charged. Cases are being filed against Awami League leaders. Our leaders are not able to stay at home, everything has been destroyed," she added.

She also accused Yunus of “destroying" Bangladesh for his “hunger for power".

“How will this country run if the law enforcement personnel are being murdered in public? Doesn’t Yunus understand this? Or is he guiding the country to doomsday? Yunus is destroying our country out of hunger for power," she alleged.

In her speech, Hasina referred to Abu Sayeed, a student activist, who became the face of last year’s student protests. Sayeed had died during the protests. There had been conflicting reports over his death. In February, a fact-finding report by the UN said Sayeed was a victim of a “deliberate extra-judicial killing" by the police.

Hasina said, “Abu Sayeed was hit by a rubber bullet. The police didn’t use metal bullets. A rock smashed his head when they were throwing stones at the police. Even the police had the right to defend themselves when attacked. But where did the 7.62 mm bullet come from? Who brought that rifle to the protest?"

“Now exhume Sayeed’s body and conduct a forensic examination. It will be proved that all the murders were part of a conspiracy. I didn’t kill them, neither did Awami League nor the police. The police rather were victims," she added.

India