WEB DESK: Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has disclosed surviving multiple assassination attempts following her ousting amid a student-led revolution.
Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has revealed details of an alleged assassination plot against her and her sister, Sheikh Rehana, after her ousting from power. “Rehana and I survived just 20-25 minutes apart, we escaped death,” Hasina said in an audio message posted on the Bangladesh Awami League’s Facebook page.
“I feel it is the will of Allah that I have survived—the August 21 grenade attack, the Kotalipara bomb plot, and now this recent threat,” she said emotionally. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be alive today”, Sheikh Hasina
She further told, “I just feel that surviving the killings on August 21, or surviving the huge bomb in Kotalipara, surviving on this time August 5, 2024, there must be a will of Allah, a hand of Allah”, the deposed PM said, adding, “although I am suffering, I am without my country, without my home, everything has been burned.”
This is not the first time that there has been an assassination plot against Hasina the August 21, 2004, grenade attack, which targeted Hasina during an anti-terrorism rally in Dhaka, killed 24 people and injured over 500. Hasina narrowly escaped with minor injuries. Similarly, in 2000, a 76kg bomb was discovered in Kotalipara, where she was scheduled to address a rally.
Hasina’s exile has been marked by intensified scrutiny. Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal has issued arrest warrants against her for alleged enforced disappearances during her 15-year rule, with prosecutors accusing her administration of abducting over 500 individuals. “She must face justice for crimes against humanity,” stated Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Bangladesh’s interim government.
The 76-year-old leader was ousted from power, fleeing to India last year after a student-led revolution toppled her government amid protests and clashes that claimed over 600 lives.
