In undelivered speech, Sheikh Hasina accuses US of plotting regime change
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New Delhi: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wanted to address the nation before she fled the country, NDTV reported accessing her undelivered speech where she accused the US of plotting a regime change in the country.
Hasina could not deliver the speech after the protesters ran wild nearly reaching her doorstep with security officers advising her to leave the country at the earliest.
The 76-year-old now staying in India reportedly told her close associates about the undelivered speech.
The speech accessed by NDTV said: ‘I resigned so that I did not have to see the procession of dead bodies. They wanted to come to power over the dead bodies of students, but I did not allow it. I resigned from premiership. I could have remained in power if I had surrendered the sovereignty of Saint Martin Island and allowed America to hold sway over the Bay of Bengal. I beseech to the people of my land, please do not be manipulated by radicals.’
The Saint Martin Island, located in the northeastern part of Bay of Bengal, has an area of just 3 square kilometres.
‘Maybe, if I had stayed in the country, more lives would have been lost. I have removed myself. You were my strength, you did not want me, so I have left,’ it further said.
In a message to her party workers Hasina said Awami League has always bounced back, adding ‘Don't lose hope. I will return soon. I have lost but the people of Bangladesh have won, the people for whom my father, my family died.’
She had to resign and leave the country as the protest became so violent that over 300 people were killed in it.
The former Prime Minster was quoted as stating: ‘If I had remained in the country, more lives would have been lost more resources would have been destroyed. I made the extremely difficult decision to exit. I became your leader because you chose me, you were my strength’.
While expressing her pain over Awami League leaders being targeted, she said she "will return soon", adding that ‘Swami League has stood up again and again. I shall forever pray for the future of Bangladesh.’
It is reported that relations between the US and Bangladesh soured during Hasina’s term with the US saying the elections in which Hasian returned to power were not ‘free or fair’.