Bangladesh’s interim government is incapable of ensuring fair elections and has barred former premier Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League from participating in upcoming polls because it fears the party’s popularity, senior Awami League leaders said on Saturday.
Besides accusing the caretaker administration led by Muhammad Yunus of failing to protect Bangladesh’s minorities and trampling on human rights, Awami League leaders Hasan Mahmud and Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury criticised a report presented by the UN Human Rights Office on deaths and violence during protests in July-August 2024 as biased and one-sided.
This was the first time senior Awami League leaders addressed the media in New Delhi since the fall of Hasina’s government following widespread student-led protests in 2024. Hasina has lived in self-exile in New Delhi since she fled Bangladesh, and many Awami League leaders are currently in India or Europe. Mahmud, who served as foreign minister, recently arrived in India from Belgium.
Referring to the interim government’s decision to bar all activities of the Awami League, which led to the party being kept out of Bangladesh’s general election scheduled for February 12, Mahmud said: “The election should be held under a neutral caretaker government, this administration is completely hostile towards us and they are taking revenge on us.
“Under this administration, a level playing field for Awami League will never be possible. We do want to participate in the election, we came to power all the time through elections, we believe in people’s power.”
Mahmud contended the Awami League was barred from the “arranged election” since the party’s popularity has increased because of the interim government’s “atrocities, failure to run the country [and] manage the economy”. He added, “We are always ready to go to [Bangladesh], we are political elements, we have gone to jail before. Sheikh Hasina also went to jail before. There must be rule of law. We shall definitely return to the country…along with Sheikh Hasina, our leader.”
Mahmud and Chowdhury, who served as education minister, criticised the interim government for failing to protect minorities and pointed referred to the case of Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu man whose body was set on fire after he was lynched following accusations of blasphemy. They said the set-up led by Yunus had failed to prevent the looting and burning of homes and temples of Hindus and even gave “indemnity” to those accused of killing Awami League workers.
The two former ministers, who were accompanied by Awami League activists based in the US and the UK, criticised the report presented last year by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which estimated that 1,400 people were killed when Hasina’s government repressed protests during July-August 2024, and the role of UN human rights chief Volker Türk.
Mahmud contended the report, which didn’t include the views of Awami League leaders even after UN officials interviewed him and Chowdhury, was “totally fabricated, biased, one-sided and meant to protect the regime” of Yunus. Chowdhury said: “The UN started from the presumption that the Awami League government was guilty.”
The Awami League leaders noted that such investigations by the UN are done only after the Security Council passes a resolution but pointed out that in this instance, Türk convened a team to carry out a probe on the basis of a request from Yunus. While Chowdhury acknowledged there were excesses by the security forces while dealing with the student-led protests, he said the UN report made no mention of the hundreds of police personnel killed or reported missing during the demonstrations or the attacks on Awami League workers and leaders following the ouster of Hasina’s government.
India has so far not acted on Bangladesh’s request for Hasina’s extradition. While accusing the interim government of turning a blind eye to the “unremitting hostility” against Bangladesh’s minorities, New Delhi has also called for “free, fair, inclusive and participatory elections” in the neighbouring country.
