- Ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina gave a defiant virtual speech in New Delhi ahead of her planned return
- Hasina accused current regime of violence, mass arrests, and economic decline since her ouster in 2024
- Bangladesh Foreign Ministry condemned India for allowing Hasina to attack Bangladesh from Indian soil
Ousted Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has delivered a defiant virtual address to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia in New Delhi, ahead of what she described as her planned homecoming, prompting an unusually sharp same-day rebuke from Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs that accused India of allowing an "absconding convicted genocider" to attack the Bangladeshi state from Indian soil.
The duelling statements -- one from the deposed leader in exile, the other an official press release from Dhaka -- reignited the bitter dispute over the July-August 2024 uprising that ended Hasina's 15-year rule, and injected fresh strain into India-Bangladesh relations.
Hasina's Address
Speaking on the second anniversary of the "July Revolution" and on what she said was the birthday of her late brother Sheikh Kamal, Hasina rejected the widely accepted narrative that the movement that toppled her was a spontaneous, peaceful student protest. She said the effort was engineered from behind the scenes, telling the press club that "a quota reform movement was turned into a one-point demand for my resignation," and pointed to Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus's own past description of the uprising as a "meticulously designed" movement with a "mastermind" as proof it was orchestrated.
Hasina placed heavy emphasis on violence against police and state institutions during the unrest, citing figures from what she called "persecuted police members" that at least 3,000 officers were killed, tortured,or attacked, and that roughly 460 police stations were burned. "Does the state have no duty to protect lives and property?" she asked, defending the conduct of law enforcement during the crackdown that rights groups and the UN say killed well over a thousand civilians.
She reserved her most explosive language for the interim and current governments, accusing them of halting her own judicial inquiry into the killings and granting "indemnity to those involved," and alleging that at least 10,000 people have been killed or disappeared since her ouster, with roughly 650,000 arrests and a million-plus people named as unnamed accused in cases. She said the historic Dhanmondi 32 residence of her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had been "attacked and demolished in phases," calling it part of an effort to "erase the spirit of the Liberation War."
On the economy, Hasina cited a collapse in GDP growth to 2.22 per cent from 6.80 per cent under her government, a jump in defaulted bank loans from 13 to 47 per cent, and a poverty rate she said had surged from 18.6 to 46.8 per cent. She closed with a vow: "Whatever fate awaits me, I will return to my people," while acknowledging she could face arrest or imprisonment for what she called "fabricated cases."
Dhaka's Rebuttal
The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs response, issued the same evening, did not mince words. It said Bangladesh was "outraged" that Hasina -- whom it repeatedly labelled a "convicted genocider" and "convicted mass murderer" -- was permitted to hold a live media interaction in New Delhi, where she and "her henchmen launched venomous vitriol against the State of Bangladesh and her people."
The ministry said it had warned India in advance about the "likely ramifications" the event would have on bilateral ties and expressed regret that it went ahead anyway, calling the timing -- on the anniversary of the July Revolution -- "an affront to the sovereignty of Bangladesh and a grievous insult to the martyrs." It dismissed Hasina's questioning of UN-documented casualty figures, including the killing of children, as "a futile attempt by the absconding convicted mass murderer Hasina and her criminal cohort to reverse the tide of history."
The statement also pointed to unresolved extradition tensions, noting that Dhaka's "repeated requests" for Hasina's return under the 2013 Bangladesh-India extradition treaty "have not yet elicited a response," and warned that allowing her to "openly interact with the media under any pretext is deeply hurtful to our people's sentiment and detrimental to the development of harmonious bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India."
Wider Fallout
The exchange lands amid an already tense backdrop: the Awami League remains banned and barred from politics following last year's proscription, and the BNP, led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, took office after a February 2026 election the Awami League was excluded from contesting. Hasina's economic and human-rights claims, and Dhaka's counter-accusations, remain sharply contested and mutually exclusive accounts of the same two years -- with neither independently verified by outside bodies as of Wednesday's exchange.
Neither the Indian Ministry of External Affairs nor the Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia had issued a public response to Dhaka's statement at the time of this report. The episode is likely to further complicate India-Bangladesh diplomacy, coming as Dhaka continues to press New Delhi on Hasina's extradition and as Hasina signals her intent to return to Bangladesh despite facing prosecution there.
