In a fiery audio message, Bangladesh’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina lashed out at Muhammad Yunus, alleging he seized power with extremist support and is dismantling the constitution.
May 26, 2025: Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has accused interim government head Muhammad Yunus of “selling the nation to the United States” and surrendering the country to “terrorists” in an explosive audio message posted on the Awami League’s Facebook page.
Hasina, who was forced to resign and flee the country in August 2024 after student-led protests ousted her government, launched her scathing attack amid reports that Yunus has threatened to resign following calls from the military to hold general elections in December.
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Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed as the transitional head of government on August 7, 2024. However, Hasina claims Yunus, who once enjoyed global recognition during her own government’s rule, has now “handed over the country’s reins to extremist groups” that her administration had fought against.
“My father did not agree to America’s demands for St. Martin’s Island and had to sacrifice his life for that. I never thought of selling the country to stay in power,” Hasina said, invoking the legacy of her father, Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
She painted a bleak picture of Bangladesh under Yunus’s leadership, accusing him of releasing militants from prison and reversing her government’s crackdown on extremist violence. “Now Bangladesh is under the reign of militants,” she said.
Hasina also slammed Yunus for the Awami League’s recent ban, calling it unconstitutional and illegal. “The constitution of our great Bengali nation was achieved through our liberation war. Who gave this militant leader the right to touch it? He has no mandate from the people, no constitutional basis,” she asserted.
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She ended her message by questioning Yunus’s legitimacy: “That position of Chief Advisor does not exist. So how can he change the law without parliament?”
The stinging remarks mark a dramatic escalation in Bangladesh’s political crisis, which erupted after Yunus assumed leadership of the caretaker government last year.
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Sheikh Hasina, Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh interim government, Awami League, extremist groups, constitutional crisis, St. Martin’s Island, US involvement, Bangladesh politics, 2025