DHAKA: Bangladesh on Sunday said it was “surprised” and “shocked” that India allowed fugitive former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to deliver a public speech in New Delhi.
Hasina, 78, fled to neighboring India in August 2024 after a student-led uprising ended her 15-year iron-fist rule.
She made her first public speech since then in an audio address to a packed press club in Delhi on Friday.
She was convicted in absentia by a Dhaka court in November of inciting, ordering to kill and failing to prevent atrocities and was sentenced to hang.
“The government and people of Bangladesh are surprised and shocked,” the foreign ministry in Dhaka said in a statement.
“Allowing the event to take place in the Indian capital and allowing mass murderer Hasina to openly deliver her hate speech…is a blatant affront to the people and government of Bangladesh.”
He said allowing Hasina to deliver the speech set “a dangerous precedent” that could “severely damage bilateral relations.”
Voters in Bangladesh will go to the polls on February 12 to elect new leaders after a period of unrest that followed the overthrow of Hasina’s autocratic government.
Hasina said in her audio speech that “Bangladesh will never witness free and fair elections” under the leadership of interim leader Muhammad Yunus.
More than 100,000 people watched the speech broadcast online.
Bangladesh has asked India to extradite Hasina, but New Delhi is yet to comment on the request.
