Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the son of Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has publicly thanked India for protecting his mother’s life, claiming that militant groups had been plotting to assassinate the 78-year-old leader after her removal from power. Speaking to ANI, Joy said that Hasina’s escape to India prevented an imminent attack. “India has essentially saved my mother’s life. Had she stayed in Bangladesh, the militants were prepared to kill her,” he said, describing her evacuation as the only reason she survived the turmoil unleashed in Dhaka last year.
Wazed denounced the death sentence issued to Hasina by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, calling it nothing more than a politically driven punishment engineered by those who seized control after the student-led uprising of July–August 2024. He alleged that the interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus had removed judges, modified laws without parliamentary sanction, and barred Hasina from properly defending herself. According to him, the entire process was a “political vendetta”, not a fair judicial proceeding. He added that no democratic country would consider extraditing Hasina under such circumstances.
Joy also issued a stark warning to India about rising terror threats from Bangladesh, claiming that Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba was now operating with unprecedented freedom under the interim regime. He said the group’s presence in Bangladesh represented a growing danger for India, especially after several terror attacks this year that Indian agencies suspect had cross-border links. He alleged that the Yunus-led administration had overturned convictions and released “tens of thousands of extremists”, creating a volatile security landscape across India’s eastern frontier.
He went further, accusing Pakistan’s ISI of supplying arms that infiltrated last year’s protest movement. Referring to footage showing armed individuals among student demonstrators, Wazed said the weapons were “without a doubt” brought in from Pakistan, claiming the protests—which eventually forced Hasina’s exit on August 5, 2024—had been hijacked by Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Shibir.
Hasina was convicted in absentia on charges of incitement and ordering lethal force, including the use of drones and helicopters, during the 2024 unrest. From exile in New Delhi, she dismissed the verdict as the product of a “rigged tribunal” under an “unelected and unconstitutional government.” Joy echoed this criticism, saying the current rulers were using the courts as “rubber stamps” to eliminate political opponents and legitimise their takeover.
Looking ahead, Joy warned that Bangladesh was heading toward instability as the interim administration prepares elections without allowing the Awami League to participate. He called the upcoming vote a “sham” and vowed stronger resistance, saying mass protests were inevitable unless the international community intervened. According to him, any return to democratic governance would swiftly overturn the tribunal’s decision because “the legal flaws are so extensive that the verdict cannot stand.”
