The United States State Department strongly rejected allegations of government involvement in the resignation of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, calling them ‘ridiculous’ and ‘completely false’ claims.
“This is ridiculous. Any allegation of US involvement in Sheikh Hasina’s resignation is completely false,” Vedant Patel, Principal Deputy Spokesperson at the US Department of State, said in a press briefing on Tuesday (local time).
Patel further said that there has been a lot of misinformation in recent weeks regarding current events in Bangladesh.
“We have seen a lot of misinformation in recent weeks and we are incredibly committed to strengthening information and integrity across the regional ecosystem, particularly with our partners in South Asia,” he said.
Recently, in an interview with ANI, US-based foreign policy expert and Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center Michael Kugelman refuted the allegations of foreign interference behind the massive uprising to oust Sheikh Hasina and said that he has not seen any ‘plausible evidence’ to support these claims.
He said the Hasina government’s harsh crackdown on protesters further escalated the movement. “My view is very simple. I see it as a crisis that was driven entirely by internal factors, by students who were unhappy about a particular issue, job quotas that they didn’t like and they were concerned about the government. Sheikh Hasina’s government acted very harshly on the students and then the movement became even bigger. And it was driven solely by internal factors,” Kugelman said.
Kugelman rejected allegations by Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who claimed foreign interference was behind the protests, saying the unrest was driven by “internal factors”.
He said, “Now, you know, when there is a conspiracy theory which is based on issues of foreign influence, one cannot prove such an allegation wrong. Also, one cannot prove it conclusively. I think it is the responsibility to point out how this can be true. I am yet to hear this from Sheikh Hasina’s son or anyone else.”
The political situation in Bangladesh has remained volatile since protests broke out across the country, leading Sheikh Hasina to resign as prime minister on August 5. The protests, which were mainly led by students, who were demanding an end to the quota system in government jobs, turned into anti-government demonstrations.
A large number of people protested outside the White House in Washington on Friday last week against the alleged violence targeting minority Hindus and others in Bangladesh since the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Protesters carried American and Bangladeshi flags and held posters demanding that Bangladeshi minorities “be saved.” They chanted “We want justice” and called for peace amid a recent surge in violence.
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