Jayanta Roy Chowdhury
New Delhi, Aug 5 (UNI) Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday that she is prepared to return to her country despite the possibility of being detained or killed, asserting that it was her duty to return to her people.
“I may be detained, but it is my duty to my people to return,” Hasina said.
She said she wanted to return so that Bangladesh could get back on the path of “progress, secularism and peace”.
While thanking India for its hospitality, the former Bangladesh prime minister said Bangladesh remained her country and she needed to get back on its hour of need.
“I was arrested in 1983, 1985, and 1987, some seven times. They may jail me or kill me, I have to go back to my people,” she said.
Recalling attacks on her life, Hasina said there had been 19 attempts on her. She also said she wanted to return to Bangladesh in December, which she described as the country’s “victory month”.
“I will tell everybody the date when I come,” Hasina said.
She said the situation in Bangladesh had not changed with the BNP coming to power.
Hasina alleged that poverty had increased, more than two crore people had become unemployed, and factories had been shut down.
She further alleged that the Bangladesh government was borrowing between Tk 500 crore and Tk 700 crore every day to run the state.
Hasina accused the authorities of destroying symbols associated with Bangladesh’s Liberation War, including Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s house and museums.
“The killings have not stopped. Awami League leaders and workers are still being killed or arrested,” she said.
She alleged that women activists of the Awami League were facing torture and abuse in prisons.
Hasina said the alleged persecution was not confined to the Awami League, claiming that journalists, academics, judges, and ordinary citizens had also not been spared.
“Bangladesh needs reconciliation,” she said.
Hasina also recalled the circumstances surrounding the birth of her son, saying, “Sajib Wazed Joy was born in captivity.”
“I speak as the daughter of Bangladesh’s Father of the Nation,” she said.
UNI JRC RSA