Exiled Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has called for an investigation into the killing of hundreds of students during street protests that toppled her government earlier this month.
In a statement posted on X by her son Sajeeb Wazed, Ms Hasina sought “a thorough investigation to identify and bring to justice those responsible for these heinous killings and acts of sabotage”.
She is herself facing a murder investigation by the interim government over the fatal police shooting of a man during the protests.
“Students, teachers, police officers—including pregnant women—journalists, cultural activists, workers, leaders, activists of the Awami League and its affiliated organisations, pedestrians and others who were working in various establishments have fallen victim to terrorist aggression and lost their lives. I express my heartfelt sorrow and pray for the peace of their souls” Ms Hasina said in the statement, speaking for the first time since fleeing to India on 5 August.
“I seek justice from the people of this nation.”
Ms Hasina recalled the assassination of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman , the founder of Bangladesh, and 15 other family members during a military coup on 15 August 1975.
She urged the public to mark 15 August as the National Day of Mourning even though the interim government has cancelled the public holiday.
Nearly 500 people have been killed in violent protests that began in late June as a demand to rollback a contentious jobs quota but soon turned into an agitation against Ms Hasina’s government. The agitation culminated with the ouster of Ms Hasina and, subsequently, the chief justice of the country.
The fall of Ms Hasina’s government collapsed law and order in the country with police and security personnel, who had taken over the streets during the protests, nowhere to be seen.
After Ms Hasina escaped on a helicopter, the protesters stormed and vandalised her residence in Dhaka and set fire to a museum dedicated to the memory of her father.
“Extreme humiliation has been given to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, under whose leadership we got self-dignity as an independent nation,” she bemoaned in the statement. “They have insulted the blood of millions of martyrs.”
“Today it has been destroyed,” she added, referring to Bangladesh.
Ms Hasina broke her silence after police under the new interim government launched a murder investigation against her for the killing of a grocer named Abu Sayeed, who was shot dead on 19 July. The case was brought by Amir Hamza, a businessman, who claimed that Sayeed’s family did not have the capacity to seek justice.
“I am the first ordinary citizen who showed the courage to take this legal step against Sheikh Hasina for her crimes. I will see the case to an end,” Mr Hamza told Reuters.
Mr Hamza petitioned a Dhaka court for an investigation into Sayeed’s killing and named Ms Hasina as a suspect along with former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader and top police officials.
The court, in turn, asked the Mohammadpur police station to start an investigation and report back to it.
Ms Hasina ruled Bangladesh with an iron first for 15 years and faced allegations of violating basic rights, stifling dissent and freedom of speech, and overseeing corruption.
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