Hasina did not make any statement over resignation, Joy claims

Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, has said a recent statement on resignation attributed to his mother published in an Indian newspaper is completely false and fabricated.

In a post on X on Sunday (August 11), Joy said he had confirmed with Hasina that she had not made any statement either before or since fleeing Bangladesh.

“The recent resignation statement attributed to my mother published in a newspaper is completely false and fabricated. I have just confirmed with her that she did not make any statement either before or since leaving Dhaka,” he said.

In an article headlined “Breaking silence after ouster, Sheikh Hasina accuses US & warns interim govt against being ‘used,’” Indian media outlet ThePrint reported that she had accused “foreign powers like the US of playing a hand in her ouster.”

“I could have remained in power if I had left St Martin and the Bay of Bengal to America,” she said in a message conveyed to her Awami League supporters, which ThePrint claims to have seen.

The report published by the Indian media outlet is as follows:

Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, currently taking refuge in India, has broken her silence by accusing foreign powers like the US of playing a hand in her ouster. This comes days after the Indian government said it was analysing the possibility of a “foreign hand” behind the political crisis in Bangladesh.

“I could have remained in power if I had left St. Martin and the Bay of Bengal to America,” she said in a message conveyed to her Awami League supporters Saturday, seen by ThePrint.

The Hasina government saw strained relations with the US for many years. Ahead of January’s elections this year, she said “a white man” had offered her a smooth return to power in exchange for an airbase.

In her latest statement, Hasina, the longest-serving prime minister in Bangladesh’s history, warned the new interim government not be “used” by such foreign powers.

The Bangladesh Parliament was dissolved earlier this week, after army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation shortly after she fled the country.

“I resigned so that I did not have to see the procession of dead bodies. They wanted to come to power over your (students’) bodies, I did not allow it. I came with power,” read Hasina’s statement.

“Maybe if I was in the country today, more lives would have been lost, more wealth would have been destroyed,” she added.

She is also expected to address the media while in India next week.