New Delhi, Feb 6 (UNI) Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today termed the demolition of the home of the country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka as a crime and said the country has been pushed back from its path of development and there is chaos all around.
Her voice shaking with emotion at the burning down of the home of her father, the country’s founder, at Dhaka’s Dhanmondi Road no 32, the former Bangladesh PM, who is living in exile in India, said that the protesters under the patronage of the “fascist” regime of Mohmmed Younus are trying to “undo history”.
“This crime cannot go unpunished. The time will come when the people will rise against this injustice being perpetrated,” she said in an address to her Awami League supporters from her unknown New Delhi location.
“The Younus government is trampling on human rights, and one day it will be brought to justice,” she declared.
She said in her 15 years of rule the country had achieved significant progress.
“But all the progress has all been undone,” she said.
She appealed to the people of Bangladesh to rise in protest against the injustice being done to the country.
She said that Bangladesh is going through a time of deep economic crisis, which is very different from the path to development under her regime. “Labourers do not earn enough to get food for one meal a day,”
“After losing my own parents (in the 1975 assassination), I accepted the people of Bangladesh as my own… Isn’t looting someone else’s house and burning it down a crime? It is dacoity, it is inhuman,” she said, her voice shaking with emotion.
She accused the “fascist Younus regime” of using the youth of Bangladesh, the young men and women, to further their own interests.
“What are they teaching the youth today -- to destroy others’ homes? Is this burning down of peoples’ homes not a crime, a crime against humanity?”
“Attacking minorities, attacking journalists and teachers, hanging Awami League supporters upside down, so much of crime is taking place. Such crimes cannot go unpunished.
“You cannot undo history, cannot destroy history; the people of Bangladesh are suffering. The people will not forgive, they will rise again,” she said.
“I have nothing to console the people of Bangladesh. The house was a part of memory, part of our independence struggle, how can you demolish that?
“They are burning down villages, why? I have struggled for the people of my country. They are burning down homes with women and children inside, this is heinous.
“I have no words to offer to console you people who have lost your homes,” she said to supporters and party activists whose homes were burnt down.
Her voice shaking with emotion, she said: “The time will come when we will answer to all these crimes done to us. We saw how the injustice was perpetrated.”
Referring to the July-August protests and injuries suffered by 34 people, she said she had spoken to the family of each injured person and provided them free medical care. However, after August 5, when she was forced to leave the country, the Younus regime has done nothing for those people and they are unable to meet their medical expenses and are running from pillar to post.
She also said that all the Awami League people who were injured and killed are not among the list of casualties with the army-backed Younus Interim government.
She appealed to the diaspora to come forward and help those affected by the protests and highlight the injustices of the Younus regime.
“My politics is for the common people. Our time has come to stand up and protest,” she added.
UNI RN