Months before accusing US of attempting to undermine Bangladesh’s sovereignty by seeking control of the St. Martin Island, ousted Bangladesh ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina had warned that a ‘white man’ came to tempt her with an offer.
She also said that her re-election process, in the 2024 general elections that the US and the West raised concerns about, would have been smoother if she allowed a foreign country to build an airbase inside Bangladeshi territory.
Hasina told Awami League workers on Saturday that she ‘could have remained in power if I had left St. Martin and the Bay of Bengal to America’, according to a report by The Print.
In May, Hasina had warned 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.
“If I allowed a certain country to build an airbase in Bangladesh, then I would have had no problem. The offer came from a White man,” she said in May.
Hasina said trade and commerce have been going on in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean since ancient times.
“Many have their eyes on this place. There is no controversy in this place and no one has conflict in it,” she said.
“Like East Timor…they will carve out a Christian country, taking parts of Bangladesh (Chattogram) and Myanmar with a base in the Bay of Bengal,” Hasina said without providing any details.
She said that conspiracies were being hatched to topple her government and that she might have to face the same consequences her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had faced.
Her son Sajeeb Wazed, on Sunday, in an X post said that ‘the recent resignation statement attributed’ to his mother, Sheikh Hasina, “published in a newspaper is completely false and fabricated”.
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— Sajeeb Wazed (@sajeebwazed) August 11, 2024
“I have just confirmed with her that she did not make any statement either before or since leaving Dhaka,” he said in a social media post.
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