Sheikh Hasina 'Did Not Make Any Statement Before Or After Leaving Dhaka': Son Sajeeb Calls Viral Message 'Fabricated'

Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, denied a report that claimed Hasina accused the US of ousting her for refusing to hand over Saint Martin Island.

Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy on Sunday dismissed as "completely false" and "fabricated" a report claiming that the former Bangladesh Prime Minister accused the USA of ousting her from power for not handling over of Saint Martin Island. 

Sajeeb Wazed said he has confirmed with Sheikh Hasina that she did not make any statement either before or after leaving Dhaka.

"The recent resignation statement attributed to my mother published in a newspaper is completely false and fabricated. I have just confirmed with her that she did not make any statement either before or since leaving Dhaka," Wazed said in a post on X on Sunday evening.

Wazed was referring to a report which claimed that Hasina accused the US behind her ouster from power and quoted Hasina saying that if she remained in Bangladesh, more lives would have been lost.

The report, based on the widely circulated voice recording of the former Bangladesh prime minister, quoted Hasina saying that she resigned to avoid witnessing further violence.

In the video, Hasina can be heard accusing the US of ousting her from power for not handling over Saint Martin's Island to it. She can also be heard saying that she resigned as PM so she did not have to see the "procession of dead bodies".

"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," Sheikh Hasina purportedly said in the viral message being shared as her "undelivered speech". 

Saint Martin's Island is a tiny island in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal and located about 9 km south of the tip of the Cox's Bazar-Tankaf peninsula.

The former PM was also heard saying that the people should be manipulated by radicals.

“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,” the video falsely quoted Hasina as saying. 

Hasina resigned on August 5 and fled to India amid political turmoil in her country.