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The son of toppled Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has warned that a special tribunal will likely sentence her to death, but that she remains safe in her Indian exile, as he threatened her supporters will block next year\u2019s election unless a ban on her party is lifted.<\/p>\n
Sajeeb Wazed made the comments to the Reuters news agency on Sunday, a day before the Dhaka court was due to deliver a televised verdict against Hasina on charges of crimes against humanity for carrying out a deadly crackdown on protesters in 2024.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The threats are likely to further stoke tensions in Bangladesh, where a wave of bombings and arson attacks has gripped the capital ahead of the ruling and February\u2019s planned election.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know exactly what the verdict is going to be. They\u2019re televising it. They\u2019re going to convict her, and they\u2019ll probably sentence her to death,\u201d said Wazed, in the United States capital, Washington, DC.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat can they do to my mother? My mother is safe in India. India is giving her full security.\u201d<\/p>\n Hasina, 78, has lived in exile in New Delhi since fleeing Bangladesh in August 2024, when the student-led protests forced an end to her 15 years in power.<\/p>\n A United Nations report estimated that up to 1,400 people were killed during the demonstrations that year, most by security forces firing live ammunition.<\/p>\n The former leader faces trial at Bangladesh\u2019s International Crimes Tribunal over the deadly crackdown. She denies wrongdoing and calls the proceedings politically motivated.<\/p>\n Wazed told Reuters that supporters of the Awami League \u2013 the nominally centre-left, secular party that has dominated Bangladeshi politics since independence \u2013 would prevent elections from going ahead if the party remains banned.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not allow elections without the Awami League to go ahead,\u201d he said. \u201cOur protests are going to get stronger and stronger, and we will do whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that \u201cunless the international community does something, eventually there\u2019s probably going to be violence in Bangladesh before these elections\u201d.<\/p>\n The interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, suspended the party\u2019s registration in May and banned its political activities, citing national security threats and war crimes investigations into senior leaders.<\/p>\n A government spokesperson rejected Wazed\u2019s warnings.<\/p>\n \u201cThe interim government regards any incitement to violence \u2013 especially by exiled political figures \u2013 as deeply irresponsible and reprehensible,\u201d the spokesperson was quoted by Reuters as saying.<\/p>\n In an earlier interview with The Associated Press news agency, Wazed said the \u201cban has to be lifted, the elections have to be inclusive and free and fair. What is happening now really is an attempt to keep my mother and our political leaders from running in elections\u201d.<\/p>\n Violence has intensified in Dhaka in recent days.<\/p>\n On Sunday, crude bombs exploded across the city, following 32 blasts reported on November 12 alone. Dozens of buses have been torched, and authorities have detained Awami League activists over alleged sabotage.<\/p>\n Schools in the capital Dhaka and other major cities went online last week.<\/p>\n Bangladesh has deployed more than 400 border guards to reinforce security, strengthened checkpoints and restricted public gatherings.<\/p>\n Hasina remains \u201ca lightning rod in Bangladeshi politics\u201d, Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cShe can deliver an online speech in India and trigger a violent reaction, as happened earlier this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Sheikh Hasina\u2019s son threatening to block the election, it makes almost overt the party\u2019s intention to use violence in the context of the upcoming election,\u201d Kugelman added.<\/p>\n The violence occurs against a backdrop of broader concerns about the Yunus government\u2019s record.<\/p>\n A report by Bangladeshi rights group Odhikar documented at least 40 extrajudicial killings between August 2024 and September 2025, despite promises to end state violence.<\/p>\n The same security forces accused of abuses under Hasina \u2013 including the paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion \u2013 remain operational.<\/p>\n Yunus has pledged to hold elections in February 2026, with a referendum on constitutional reforms on the same day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The son of toppled Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has warned that a special tribunal will likely sentence her to death, but that she remains safe in her Indian exile, as he threatened her supporters will block next year\u2019s election unless a ban on her party is lifted. Sajeeb Wazed made the comments to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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