Bangladesh uprising was planned regime change: Sheikh Hasina

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday, in a virtual address from New Delhi, alleged that the 2024 uprising which toppled her government was a "planned regime change" disguised as a student protest.In her audio address, Hasina said the July-August 2024 movement was never a genuine student-led protest. Instead, she alleged it was a "meticulously designed" operation aimed at removing her government and installing a new regime outside the democratic process.  Hasina described the country's current situation as deeply worrying before turning to the events that forced her from office.She further alleged that the quota protests were turned into a "one-point demand" for her removal and were used by "organised groups" as a cover for violence and to seize power "outside the ballot box"
Hasina's voice broke repeatedly while remembering her father, family and countrymen who were killed in Bangladesh's war of Liberation and since then. “For the last two years, I watched my beloved Bangladesh suffer...This is not the Bangladesh we built; this is not the Bangladesh for which 3 million people sacrificed their lives in 1971,” she told the gathering. “A death sentence, false cases and staged trials cannot frighten me,” Hasina said. She also called the death penalty “part of an illegal, unconstitutional and politically motivated process.”Hasina indicated she would go back in December. Sheikh Hasina said attempts to stop her from returning to Bangladesh were made even in 1981 under then-president Ziaur Rahman, but she returned nonetheless. Reiterating her resolve to go back again, she said, "They may jail me, they may kill me... anything may happen, but I still have to return."
Sheikh Hasina's son Joy expressed gratitude to India, saying Hasina had been treated "like a head of state" since arriving in the country after her ouster. She thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government for extending what she described as the "utmost respect, services and security" during her stay.