Bangladesh interim government on Thursday lodged a strong protest against the ‘false and fabricated statements’ made by the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina sheltered in India.
The foreign affairs ministry summoned the acting high commissioner of India to Bangladesh, Pawan Badhe, and handed a protest note over to him a day after Hasina’s audio statement was aired on social media and the demolition of the Dhanmondi 32 house of the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, by a large group of people, including student protesters.
‘We called the Indian deputy high commissioner to the ministry as the high commissioner was not here, and handed our protest note over to him,’ foreign affairs adviser Md Touhid Hossain told reporters at a briefing at his ministry in the capital Dhaka.
He said that Dhaka had previously urged New Delhi to prevent Hasina from engaging in such activities, but it did not receive any response from New Delhi.
‘The foreign ministry today once again conveyed its objections through the Indian acting high commissioner,’ he added.
Responding to a question, Touhid described Hasina’s statements as highly aggressive, which, he said, could have offended the sentiments of younger generation.
He said that India claimed they were not providing Hasina with a platform to give speeches online.
Responding to another question about the demolition of the Dhanmondi 32 house, the adviser said that they anticipated negative reactions, including concerns over the destruction of the Mujib’s residence at Dhanmondi. ‘But, we consider this as an expression of public anger,’ he added.
The adviser assured that the government would take measures to prevent recurrence of any such incidents.
The building of the Mujib Memorial Museum, which was vandalised and set on fire immediately after the ouster of the Hasina regime on August 5, on Dhanmondi 32 was razed to the ground on Wednesday night while many Awami League leaders’ houses were also bulldozed at places and set on fire on Wednesday night and Thursday, centring on Sheikh Hasina’s audio statement.
In the statement, the deposed prime minister mentioned the demolition of the Dhakamondi 32 house and houses of AL leaders at places and asked the people, ‘What is my fault?’
Hasina said that she had made Bangladesh a role model of development in the world, but there was now a conspiracy to destroy it.
Sheikh Hasina, also the president of the AL, fled to India for shelter amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5, 2024.
She is now facing an arrest warrant issued by the International Crimes Tribunal as more than 200 cases have been filed against her for murder, torture and incidents of enforced disappearances during her 15-year authoritarian rule.
