Ex-Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
London: Bangladesh's ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina will not make a political comeback, her son and former official adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy said on Monday, asserting that she left the country for her own safety on her family's insistence.
Hasina, 76, resigned and left the country for London earlier in the day amid mass protests against her government.
In an interview to Newshour on the BBC World Service, Joy said there would be no political comeback for his mother.
He said that Hasina had been considering resigning since Sunday and had left the country for her own safety after her family insisted.
Joy said that his mother, who ruled Bangladesh for 15 years, was "so disappointed that after all her hard work, for a minority to rise up against her", according to the report.
Expressing Hasina's disappointment, he said, “She has turned Bangladesh around. When she took over power, it was considered a failing state. It was a poor country. Until today it was considered one of the rising tigers of Asia. She's very disappointed.” The clashes between protesters demanding Hasina's resignation and the ruling Awami League supporters in different parts of Bangladesh on Sunday erupted days after more than 200 people were killed in violent clashes between police and mostly student protesters. At least 300 people have been killed within a fortnight.
Rejecting accusations that the government had been heavy-handed in dealing with protestors, Joy said, “You’ve had policemen beaten to death – 13 just yesterday. So what do you expect the police to do when mobs are beating people to death?” The protesters demanded an end to the controversial quota system that reserved 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's War of Independence in 1971.