It’s been almost a year since Bangladesh’s Awami League government was ousted from power, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flew out of Dhaka to take refuge in India. An interim government was appointed days later. There were great expectations when Muhammad Yunus took charge as its chief advisor. However, the rise of Muslim fundamentalist forces, deteriorating law and order, and widespread mob violence have roiled Bangladesh over the past year. Yunus has promised elections in February 2026, but the Awami League (AL), whose political activities were recently banned, seems unlikely to be allowed to contest the elections.
In an interview with The Diplomat’s Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, SM Kamal Hossain, a central organizing secretary of the AL and a member of the parliament that was dissolved after the AL government’s ouster on August 5, 2024, shares his view of the events leading to the government’s collapse and developments in Bangladesh over the past year. Speaking from an undisclosed location, he told Bhattacharya that a U.S. “conspiracy” led to the toppling of the Hasina government – a claim commonly made by Awami League leaders, but strongly rejected by protest leaders and U.S. officials. Instead, student leaders say their protest movement only escalated to the point of demanding Hasina’s ouster due to public outrage over the heavy-handed security response by her AL government.
Hossain admitted that there were instances of “terror, intimidation, corruption and other malpractices” during AL rule. However, “our government’s rule has been comparatively better than the rest,” he claimed, adding, “There is no rule of law now.”
How do you look back at the past year?
The July 2024 protests were nothing but a conspiracy between fascists and terrorists. With the help of a foreign power, they trampled the constitution and unconstitutionally and illegally overthrew the secular government that embodied the spirit of the 1971 Liberation War.
In May 2024, Hasina had said that she has been fighting at home and outside; at home, the communal forces — terror groups and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) combine, and abroad, a foreign power that was never happy with the very creation of Bangladesh, never liked the rise of Bangladesh, and wanted to use Bangladesh’s soil for influencing the sub-continent. They hatched a conspiracy. Bangladesh has been turned into a terror hub since then.
Are you calling it a U.S.-hatched conspiracy?
Yes.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report on the July violence said the AL government’s “brutal systematic repression” led to about 1,400 deaths. What do you think of so many deaths in just three weeks?
Two of Bangladesh’s leading media houses, The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, put the death toll between July 16 and August 4 at 329 and between August 5 and 8 at 328. A total of 657 deaths were reported. The U.N.’s preliminary report gave a similar figure, speaking of about 650 deaths. However, after Chief Advisor Yunus spoke of 1,500 deaths, the UNHRC, too, came up with this figure of 1,400.
Does the figure of 657 make the tragedy any lighter?
No. Every death is a death after all. Hasina never wanted a mother to lose her child. Who is responsible for these deaths? Hasina has called for an independent probe by the United Nations. The Yunus government’s first home affairs advisor, Brigadier (Retd.) Shakhawat Hussain, had pointed out that 7.62 mm rifles (a firearm only security forces are supposed to use) were in the hands of civilians. So, the deaths need to be seriously investigated.
Besides, of the 328 killings between August 5 and 8, as many as 122 victims were directly associated with our party. We want justice for all the killings.
Regarding the killings between July 16 and August 4, couldn’t the Hasina government and the AL have been more restrained and dealt with the situation more sensitively?
We showed tolerance and patience. It was only to avoid a confrontation that our party postponed a rally that had been planned on August 1. We had also called for a massive gathering in Dhaka on August 3. We planned to mobilize a million people at the rally. But we shelved the plan, only to avoid confrontation. Had we gone ahead with the Dhaka gathering, we could have avoided the mob-led toppling of the government. They wouldn’t have succeeded in removing us from power.
Do you think your government fell because of a softened approach?
Had we stood firm organizationally, had we gone ahead with the August 3 rally, they (protesters) would not have reached anywhere close to the prime minister’s residence.
So, why did you back out of the August 3 program?
Hasina had likely received inputs from some quarters that the rally could lead to bloodshed. She wanted to avoid bloodshed. We wanted a peaceful solution.
One of the biggest allegations against your party is that it handed Bangladesh over to India.
Let me give you one example. The current Finance Advisor (de facto minister) has told the media that India’s cancellation of transshipment facilities has led to cost escalation to the tune of Tk 2,000 crore ($164 million). India is our friend. We have blood relations with India. In 1971, the Indian Army fought shoulder to shoulder with Bangladesh’s Mukti Bahini (liberation army). The Indian Army shed blood for Bangladesh’s cause. West Bengal (the eastern Indian state that borders Bangladesh) gave shelter to 10 million people from Bangladesh. India’s then-prime minister, Indira Gandhi, and all of India’s opposition parties stood by Bangladesh. India is our political and economic friend.
The misinformation campaign branding us as India’s agents has existed for a long time. When “Bangabandhu” Sheikh Mujibur Rahman placed his famous Six-point Demand (in 1966 when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan), it was dubbed an Indian conspiracy. After Independence, they dubbed the India-Bangladesh Treaty of 1972 as akin to accepting India’s slavery. But they never cancelled it even after capturing power through Mujib’s murder (in 1975). They ran the country for 28 years thereafter. As for the Yunus government, it has not canceled any agreement with India either.
During the AL’s rule, organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued repeated statements denouncing violations of human rights, including in cases of forced disappearance, death in allegedly staged encounters, and mass arrests of opposition party leaders and workers. Why were these organizations prompted to issue repeated statements? Why did human rights violations become such an important issue during your party’s rule?
That’s because the media was free during our rule. Today, the media has no freedom to publish all that is happening. During our time, television talk shows that sharply criticized the government were more numerous. Now, the media has been paralyzed. Press accreditation of 168 journalists has been cancelled. Eight journalists have been killed, nearly a hundred have been injured, and nearly a thousand journalists have lost their jobs. Journalists have been sacked for questioning a government advisor who holds ministerial status.
I wouldn’t say that our rule did not see terror, intimidation, corruption and other malpractices; but our government’s rule has been comparatively better than the rest. There is no rule of law now. One (student leader-turned-advisor) entered the airport carrying a magazine of a firearm! Had this occurred in our time, the person would have landed in jail. Now, it’s just mob terror all around. Only a few days ago, BNP workers publicly disrobed a Hindu woman. Today, Bangladesh stands as disrobed as that Hindu woman.
Even during AL rule, journalists like Tasneem Khalil and Zulkarnain Saer were forced to work from outside the country. Why?
If someone tries to create unrest in the country using false information, the government has to act.
The election schedule has been announced, but AL leaders are either in hiding or in jail. What’s your plan?
Only time can tell. We believe the people of Bangladesh will give a befitting reply to the conspirators who handed the country over to fascist and terrorist-led mob rule. They will respond on the streets. It may appear that we are in disarray, terrorized, and our leaders are living in hiding. But as much as 52 percent of the country is living in fear, surveys have shown. We have lost power to a conspiracy, but AL leaders and workers are united. We will take the fight to the streets.
Shouldn’t the AL apologize to the people of Bangladesh? Has the issue come up in party discussions?
Apology is a non-issue. We feel that Hasina tried to take the country in the best direction for 15 years. Some of the activities of workers like us have triggered controversies. It is up to her to decide how to deal with these issues when she addresses the people of the country. Mistakes can’t be ruled out. None is beyond mistakes. But first, we have to figure out what our mistakes were. We are discussing it, but we can’t make them public now. All we can say now is that we are victims of a conspiracy and the conspiracy has hurt our trust.
Even if there had been irregularities, corruption and terrorization during our rule, why has the new Bangladesh not been freed from discrimination? Why are AL workers, why are the people who carry the spirit of the Liberation War, being targeted by mobs? Why are the minorities being subjected to atrocities? Their fight against us was for a better Bangladesh, right?
There appears to be little chance for your party to take part in the coming election. How would you fight back?
People have realized that they have been duped. That’s why they (opponents) don’t want AL to be in the electoral field. If they don’t, we’ll cross the bridge as it comes.