Deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina alleged that there were attempts to assassinate her and her sister moments before they fled Dhaka on August 5 last year amid violent student-led protests. In an emotional audio clip posted by her Awami League party on Facebook, Hasina said it was only due to God’s grace that she survived multiple assassination attempts in her political career.
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“Me and my sister, Sheikh Rehana, managed to survive. We barely escaped death within a span of 20–25 minutes,” Hasina, who has been staying in India ever since she fled Bangladesh, said.
Bangladesh was rocked by violence last year after student groups sought the scrapping of a controversial quota system in government jobs. The violence left over 500 dead and forced Hasina to flee to India as a violent mob ransacked her residence.
The five-time Prime Minister claimed that there were “conspiracies” at various phases of her political career to eliminate her. However, she did not take any names of who might be behind the alleged assassination plots.
“I feel it is the will of Allah that I have survived the killings on August 21, the Kotalipara bomb plot, and the recent August 5 threat… Otherwise, I wouldn’t be alive today,” an emotional Hasina said.
On August 21, 2004, a grenade attack on an Awami League rally killed 24 people and injured over 500. Hasina, who was then the leader of the opposition, sustained injuries in the attack.
The second incident she mentioned happened in 2000 in Kotalipara, about 140 km from the capital Dhaka, where bombs were found in a college that Hasina was supposed to visit.
“I am suffering, I am without my country, without my home, everything has been burned,” Hasina said at the end of the audio message.
While Bangladesh has sought her extradition to face charges related to her alleged involvement in incidents of violence, India has extended the visa of the former Prime Minister. Her troubles do not end here, as Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal has also issued an arrest warrant against her.
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