A humanitarian agency of the US government and the Clinton family were behind the uprising in Bangladesh that led to Sheikh Hasina's ouster in 2024, a top aide of the former prime minister has alleged in an interview with Russia Today. Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, a former minister in the Hasina cabinet, further claimed a nexus between the USAID and the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the largest humanitarian arm of the US government, which was on the target of the Department of Government Efficiency when Elon Musk was at its helm.
"Certain actions of some NGOs, especially from the US, I mean USAID to name a few, for example, or the International Republican Institute. They were running campaigns against our government for a while, since 2018," said Chowdhury.
Hasina, too, had earlier accused Yunus of "selling the nation to the US", claiming that her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was once hailed in Bangladesh as the Father of the Nation, did not agree to the US demands for St Martin's Island.
The US had rejected any role in the Bangladesh crisis, calling the claims "laughable".
Hasina fled Bangladesh on August 5, 2024, fearing for her life, minutes before a mob went on a rampage at her residence, following weeks of student-led protests in Dhaka and major cities. She's now living in Delhi.
Chowdhury alleged the unrest was "carefully planned" and funded to benefit Western interests. He also claimed that the Clinton family and the Yunus regime had a long history, and they had been trying to bring regime change for a long time.
"There is a nexus between the Clinton family and the interim Yunus regime from a very long past. These activities were going on for a long time. They weren't very open, but funding of clandestine NGOs was going on. They were hell-bent on changing the government in Bangladesh," he said during the interview.
Chowdhury also questioned where the millions of dollars in USAID funds had vanished. Those funds were used for "regime change activities" in Bangladesh, alleged the former minister, asserting, "The chaos was carefully planned with this money, and it turned into a big riot."
At least 700 people were killed in the July-August unrest over job quotas in Bangladesh last year, with reports still emerging of large-scale violence against the Hindu minorities. The change in regime also saw a major policy change, with the Yunus regime growing closer to Pakistan, a country that is accused of genocide in Bangladesh in 1971.
