Dhaka: Bangladesh has expressed outrage over fugitive former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s live media interaction in New Delhi, describing the event as an affront to the country’s sovereignty and harmful to efforts to develop harmonious bilateral relations with India.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Bangladesh was “outraged” that the “absconding convicted genocider” Sheikh Hasina had been allowed to engage in a live interaction with the media in New Delhi, where she and her associates “launched venomous vitriol against the State of Bangladesh and her people.”
The ministry said Bangladesh had conveyed its concerns in advance to the Government of India regarding the possible repercussions of the programme on efforts to reset bilateral relations, but the event was allowed to proceed.
According to the statement, the interaction, held on the second anniversary of the July Revolution, was “an affront to the sovereignty of Bangladesh and a grievous insult to the martyrs of the July Revolution.”
The ministry said the denial of facts established by the United Nations, including the killing of civilians, among them children, during the July-August 2024 events, represented “a futile attempt” to rewrite history, adding that the people of Bangladesh had rejected such attempts in the past and continue to do so.
Reaffirming the spirit of the July Revolution, the statement said the people of Bangladesh had resolved that the country would “never again go back to the dark days of fascism” and would “never be a client state.”
It added that Sheikh Hasina and her associates “will never have a place in the polity of Bangladesh.”
The ministry reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment to maintaining a constructive, mutually beneficial and forward-looking relationship with India based on sovereign equality, mutual respect, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs and national dignity.
The statement also expressed regret that Bangladesh’s repeated requests for Sheikh Hasina’s return under the Bangladesh-India Extradition Treaty signed in 2013 have not yet received a response.
Instead, it said, allowing her to openly interact with the media under any pretext has deeply hurt public sentiment in Bangladesh and is detrimental to the development of harmonious bilateral relations between the two neighbouring countries.
