Hasina calls Bangladesh interim regime ‘fascist’, urges people to reclaim democracy
Exiled former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday launched a blistering attack on the country’s interim government, accusing it of torture, sexual violence, political repression and sabotaging democracy, in her first public address from India since fleeing Dhaka.
Speaking through a pre-recorded audio message played at a “Save Democracy in Bangladesh” event at the Foreign Correspondents Club, Hasina said the interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus was incapable of conducting free and fair elections and had plunged the country into chaos and fear.
Her address comes less than three weeks before Bangladesh’s general elections scheduled for February 12, from which her party, the Awami League, has been barred.
Hasina described Bangladesh as a nation soaked in blood and gripped by terror, alleging widespread killings, arson, looting, torture and sexual assaults under the current dispensation. She warned that minorities, women and vulnerable communities were facing unprecedented threats amid the collapse of law and order.
Calling Yunus a “corrupt, power-hungry traitor” and a “foreign-backed puppet,” Hasina accused the interim leadership of conspiring to remove an elected government and dismantle constitutional democracy.
Awami League President Sheikh Hasina’s message on the sham election which is being staged by the #YunusRegime in the name of #democracy. pic.twitter.com/UrpjpC6VG6
— Bangladesh Awami League (@albd1971) January 24, 2026
She appealed to citizens to rise up in the spirit of the 1971 Liberation War, defend the Constitution and reclaim sovereignty and democratic rule. The former prime minister also demanded ironclad guarantees for the protection of religious minorities and journalists, and urged the United Nations to conduct a fresh, truly impartial investigation into events following the collapse of her government.
Hasina has been living in exile in India since August 2024, after student-led protests escalated into violent unrest across Bangladesh.
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