In a powerful display of unyielding courage and moral clarity, Bangladesh’s visionary former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, at 78 years young, has once again proven why she remains the unbreakable spine of her nation’s democratic legacy.
In a rare and candid interview with The Independent on Wednesday, coupled with her recent virtual addresses to devoted Awami League members, Sheikh Hasina has boldly refuted the avalanche of falsehoods, propaganda, and vindictive allegations levelled against her, including sham charges of crimes against humanity and calls for indemnity that seek to erase her monumental contributions.
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Far from cowering in exile in India, where she was forced to seek safety on 5 August last year to protect herself and her loved ones from imminent threats, Hasina has emerged as a defiant voice of truth. She mourns deeply for every life lost during the violent insurrection that masqueraded as protests, offering heartfelt condolences to families who lost “each and every child, sibling, cousin and friend we lost as a nation.”
Yet, she rightly rejects any personal blame for the bloodshed, emphasising that breakdowns in discipline among security forces on the groundโnot her directivesโled to the tragedies. “As a leader, I ultimately take leadership responsibility,” she stated with characteristic accountability, “but the claim that I ordered or wished for the security forces to open fire on the crowds is simply wrong.”
Sheikh Hasina’s outspoken stance shines brightest in her dismantling of the so-called “sham trial” at Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD), orchestrated by an unelected interim government under Muhammad Yunusโa regime stacked with her political opponents hell-bent on vengeance.
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“The ICT is a sham court presided over by an unelected government consisting of my political opponents,” she declared fearlessly. “Many of those opponents will stop at nothing to get rid of me.” Prosecutors’ demands for the death penalty on inflated claims of up to 1,400 deaths are nothing but propaganda tools, she exposed, noting how her own government had launched an independent inquiry into the initial incidentsโonly for it to be abruptly shut down by Yunus’s administration.
Echoing her virtual meetings with Awami League loyalists, where she rallied supporters to fight for justice and democracy (as detailed in The Daily Republic’s exclusive coverage), Hasina condemned the unfair ban on her party from contesting elections. Yunus’s pledge for polls in February 2026 rings hollow without the Awami League’s inclusion, denying the people their right to choose. “Only free, fair, and inclusive elections can heal the country,” she asserted, vowing to restore true democracy despite the odds.
This elder stateswoman, daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, draws from a painful family history of political assassinations to warn against this “ugly tradition” of elimination. Her government’s response to the chaos, which began as student demands over job quotas but spiralled into a destructive anti-state uprising, was always in “good faith… to minimise the loss of life,” she explained. Street-level decisions by security personnel followed established guidelines, and any errors occurred in a “febrile atmosphere,โ not from her iron-fisted authoritarianism, as detractors falsely paint her 15-year rule.
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Sheikh Hasina’s bravery extends to contesting the weaponised narratives from groups like Amnesty International and the UN, whose shock at the crackdown ignored the insurrection’s violence.
She rightly calls out “compromised testimony and evidence that has been manipulated” to serve the unelected regime’s ends. No indemnity or apology is owed for upholding constitutional duties against anarchy; instead, history will honour her for ending military rule in the 1990s, restoring parliamentary democracy, and lifting millions from povertyโachievements now jeopardised by Yunus’ interim rule.
At 78, Sheikh Hasina is not intimidated by death sentences in absentia or exile. “No democratically elected leader should be prosecuted for upholding constitutional duties to protect their country in the face of violent insurrection,” she proclaimed. In her virtual exhortations to party members, she urged resilience against lies, inspiring a nation to remember her as the leader who built Bangladesh’s prosperity. Her voice against propaganda is a clarion call for truthโproving once more that true leaders like Hasina rise above adversity, unbowed and unbreakable. Bangladesh needs her wisdom now more than ever to reclaim its democratic soul.
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