Awami League President and five-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has unleashed a scathing attack on the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government’s freshly released investigation into the 2009 Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny, branding it a “complete fabrication” designed to falsely implicate her and her Awami League party in the massacre of senior officers.
The remarks, delivered amid escalating political tensions, come just days after the National Independent Commission submitted its report accusing Hasina of personally ordering the killings that claimed 74 lives, including 57 army personnel, during the two-day revolt at Dhaka’s Pilkhana Headquarters.
Speaking at a virtual discussion with party leaders from Lakhsmipur, Sheikh Hasina recounted the chaos of the mutiny with vivid personal detail. “We contained that BDR conflict in just 72 hours,” she said, her voice steady but laced with indignation.
“And in that tragedy, where army officers were slaughtered—from DG Shakil to 46 others—all were from Awami League families. My brother Jahangir Kabir Nanak’s own nephew, our late leader’s grandson-in-law—every single officer there was placed by us. Many had been appointed to the President’s Guard Regiment (PGR) and Special Security Force (SSF), set to join after the February 24-25 event. But they were all murdered.”
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The former premier, 78, reserved her sharpest barbs for the commission’s chairperson, retired Major General ALM Fazlur Rahman, whom she accused of incompetence and bias. Hasina recalled a 2010 border skirmish under Rahman’s watch as BDR DG, where Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were killed, prompting Delhi’s fury. “His knees started shaking,” she said.
“He called me 22 times that night. I personally intervened, speaking to then-Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to save his life. And now this same man, who could plunge a country into crisis, heads a probe claiming we orchestrated the murders? That I gave the orders? Why would I, when I’d barely formed the government two months earlier? This is our handiwork turned against us—a false committee peddling lies to slap new cases on us.”
The commission’s report, submitted to Yunus on November 30 at the Jamuna state guesthouse, alleges Hasina gave the “green signal” for the killings, with then-MP Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh as the “principal coordinator.” It also implicates other Awami League heavyweights like Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Mirza Azam, and Sahara Khatun, while hinting at Indian involvement in a plot to “weaken the Bangladesh Army.”
Yunus hailed the findings as revealing “long-hidden truths,” contrasting them with Hasina’s original probe, which blamed rank-and-file grievances over pay and conditions.
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Sheikh Hasina dismissed the narrative outright, pointing to her government’s swift formation of a probe led by then-Deputy Home Minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak—now absurdly named in the new report. “Based on our findings, trials happened, and sentences were given. But when Yunus took power, he freed the Holey Artisan attackers and the 21 August grenade assault convicts—all to fill prisons with countless Awami League leaders and workers. Now they’re reinvestigating the BDR carnage with Fazlur Rahman. A man whose legs turned to jelly at the first whiff of trouble.”
Her critique extended to glaring inconsistencies in the broader political reckoning. Hasina questioned why the probe ignores Khaleda Zia’s suspicious movements on the mutiny day: “Why did she leave her home at 6am? Because Tarique Rahman called her—from London, making 45 calls to Dhaka that night—urging her to flee. She went to her brother’s house outside the cantonment and didn’t return for a month and a half. Has anyone investigated that? No, they’re just piling blame on us, when we’ve never sought revenge.”
The exiled leader, facing over 450 cases, including murder charges, painted a picture of selective justice under Yunus. She lamented attacks on Awami League activists, like the arson and looting of a Lakshmipur leader’s home by BNP youth wing member Roman Haoladar, who sent photos to Tarique Rahman to curry favour.
“That broken house [at Dhanmondi 32] was torched on February 5, 2025, then bulldozed. What kind of country is this? If Bangabandhu hadn’t freed it, would these major generals or IGPs even exist? We promoted them from majors—now they befriend the murderers behind the mass killings, while Awami League, who liberated us from Pakistani boots, is vilified.”
Activists say Sheikh Hasina’s outburst underscores deepening rifts in Bangladesh’s fragile transition.
The Awami League, in an official statement, echoed her sentiments, calling the report a “politically driven blueprint to destabilise” and noting the mutineers’ appointments under the prior BNP-Jamaat regime targeted pro-liberation families. Interim officials, meanwhile, reiterated extradition demands for Hasina as a “top priority,” amid strained India ties.
As Dhaka braces for potential unrest, Sheikh Hasina vowed a return: “I stopped everyone from revenge. I said, ‘If a dog bites your foot, do you stomp the whole pack?’ But now our workers face 32 cases each and brutal torture. This isn’t justice; it’s a vendetta.”
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