Nobel laureate and chief adviser to the interim Bangladesh government Muhammad Yunus this week accepted that there was ‘design and conspiracy’ involved in the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the nation’s former prime minister.
Yunus was invited to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting, where he was welcomed by former US president Bill Clinton and US President Joe Biden.
He paid tribute to Bangladeshi student leaders, saying: “They are the ones creating the new version of Bangladesh — let’s wish them every success.”
However, he also said that ‘no one could make out’ who was behind the protests but also named a Mahfuj Abdullah and indicated that he played a role in Hasina’s ouster from her country.
The 84-year-old economist was appointed as the country’s “chief advisor” in August following the bloody, student-led movement that ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, who has since fled the country. There are concerns that the student protests may have been hijacked by external forces.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden offered “continued US support as Bangladesh implements its new reform agenda,” a White House statement said.
The US-Bangladesh relationship “is rooted in shared democratic values and strong people-to-people ties,” it said.
“This was meticulously designed and did not happen simply,” Yunus said.
CNN-News18 in an earlier report said that ‘an invisible hand’ played a role in the removal of Sheikh Hasina following protests demanding reform to a jobs reservation system that led to the killing of more than 450 people.
Top intelligence sources speaking to CNN-News18 said the event was an ‘official introduction at the world stage’ for the Nobel laureate. “Yunus and his association with the US is well-known,” the official said.
During the event, former president Clinton said “few people on this planet have done as much (as Yunus) to change the lives of ordinary people who would never have had access to credit.”
Their friendship dates back to the 1980s, when Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, invited Yunus to visit and share his approach to alleviating poverty through small loans, which had successfully empowered impoverished Bangladeshi women without access to traditional banking services.
Yunus, in turn, thanked Clinton for believing in him in his early days, and for standing by him despite criticism at the time for promoting a Bangladeshi economist’s ideas in America.
The sources also reminded that Hasina in an interview accepted that a certain nation wanted her removed because she did not want to deal with them on a port issue.
Hasina in an interview had claimed that she was approached by a ‘white man’ who offered to build an airbase in return for a smooth re-election in the 2024 general elections which was boycotted by the opposition parties.
She had warned that “conspiracies are still on” to carve a new country out of Bangladesh, like East Timor. The Awami League supremo also added that the ‘white man’ is also targeting several other nations with his offers.
(with inputs from AFP)
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