Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed also questioned the United Nations’ reported death toll from the 2024 protests in Bangladesh and criticised the country’s indemnity law, alleging it granted blanket legal protection to protesters, including in cases involving the killing of civilians, political workers and police officers.
Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed, on Tuesday claimed that Bangladesh had become “another Pakistan” on India’s eastern frontier, alleging that foreign intelligence agencies, particularly Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), were operating freely in the country.
Speaking during a virtual interaction with the media in Delhi, Wazed said the situation in Bangladesh should be a matter of serious concern for India.
“What should concern India most is Bangladesh has become another Pakistan, on India’s eastern side. You have another Pakistan today on your eastern front. Foreign Intelligence services, especially ISI has an open hand,” he said.
Wazed further said that Bangladesh could emerge as a future hub for global terrorism if the current situation was not addressed.
“In the future, the next step of terrorists globally are going to be coming from Bangladesh, unless this is stopped now,” he claimed.
Wazed also questioned the United Nations’ reported death toll from the 2024 protests in Bangladesh and criticised the country’s indemnity law, alleging it granted blanket legal protection to protesters, including in cases involving the killing of civilians, political workers and police officers.
Wazed said there were conflicting estimates of the number of people killed during the July 2024 protests.
“You have heard again and again about the deaths during the July protest of 2024. You have various counts on the numbers. You have the UN number of 1,400, whereas the government number is 800 something. Who are these additional 600 people? Where did the UN get those names?” he said.
Wazed said his party and its lawyers had repeatedly written to the United Nations seeking clarification on the figures.
“Our party has written to the UN. Our lawyers have written to the UN again and again. And today the UN has not provided any names,” he said.
He further claimed that the UN’s assessment covered only the period up to August 15, 2024, while alleging that deaths continued beyond that date.
Wazed also criticised the Yunus-led administration over what he described as an indemnity law passed soon after it came to power.
“The Yunus regime, one of the first things they did was pass an Ordinance which became law, called the Indemnity Bill, indemnifying all the protesters, everyone, blanket immunity, protecting them from any prosecution for any killings,” he said.
According to Wazed, the legal protection extended to cases involving the killing of civilians, members of his party and police officers.
“That includes killings of civilians, that includes killings of our party members, and that includes killings of police officers. This is unprecedented. How can you have blanket legal protection for killings by anyone, especially killing the police officers? This is unprecedented. This is completely against all human rights, against all norms of decency,” he said.
With inputs from agencies
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