"Escaped Death By 20-25 Minutes": Sheikh Hasina Recalls She Left Bangladesh Because There Was A Conspiracy To Kill Her

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina claimed that there was a plot to assassinate her and her sister Rehana soon after she was compelled to resign on 5 August 2024 due to student-led demonstrations.

These accusations were made by Hasina in an audio recording that was posted late Friday (17 January) on her Facebook page by the Bangladesh Awami League party.

"Rehana and I survived – just 20-25 minutes apart, we escaped death," Hasina said adding that this was one of such “conspiracies” to kill her that she faced at various phases of her life.

“I just feel that surviving the killings on 21 August, or surviving the huge bomb in Kotalipara, surviving on this time 5 August 2024, there must be a will of Allah, a hand of Allah. Otherwise, I'm not going to survive this time. You later saw how they planned to kill me,” Hasina said.

“However, it seems to be a mercy of Allah that I am still alive because Allah wants me to do something more,” she added.

Hasina was then compelled to take refuge in India due to a student-led protest, suspected to be supported by the opposition, that swept through the national capital, Dhaka. The persistent protesters, demanding Hasina's resignation, resulted in over 600 fatalities and hundreds of injuries.

Hasina also reflected on her exile and said emptionally, "Although I am suffering, I am without my country, without my home, everything has been burned."

Meanwhile, a court in Bangladesh has issued a second arrest warrant for the 77-year-old Hasina, the chief prosecutor Tajul Islam announced on 6 January, due to her purported involvement in enforced disappearances.

The head prosecutor of the local International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) stated that over 500 individuals were purportedly kidnapped by security staff from Bangladesh, with a number of them being held in clandestine facilities for several years.

In December 2024, Bangladesh requested India to extradite Hasina for a trial, a plea that Delhi chose not to answer. The provisional government pursued her extradition by dispatching an unsigned diplomatic note, also known as a note verbale, to the Ministry of External Affairs on 23 December.