After a Bangladesh court handed a death sentence to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed accused the previous US administration of pouring large amounts of money into efforts to remove her government. However, under Trump, the attitude of the US government has “definitely changed”.
Wazed, who lives in the US while his mother remains in exile in India, told ANI that Washington’s stance is now very different from what it was during the political turmoil last year. He said that President Trump had publicly stated earlier that the former US administration, through USAID, spent millions on influencing political change in Bangladesh.
When asked whether the Hasina government had ever received threats from the US, Wazed said they had not. “No, we’ve not received any threats whatsoever. The only slight issue was that the US was the only country that issued a negative statement on our 2024 elections, which our opposition boycotted. Other than that, the elections were regarded as peaceful by everyone. So there was no direct pressure. Now, there is a completely new government in the US. The situation is completely different,” he said.
Wazed also said that US priorities have shifted because Trump is more focused on tackling terrorism and what he described as a rise in Islamist extremism in Bangladesh. According to him, the American viewpoint has clearly changed compared to the previous administration.
‘India saved my mother’s life’
Wazed slammed Dhaka’s request to extradite his mother and dismissed the legal cases against her. He also warned that India should be alert about the rising threat of terrorism from Bangladesh. He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving his mother asylum, saying militants had planned to kill her. He said Bangladesh’s demand for extradition had no legal basis and claimed that normal judicial rules were ignored during her trial.
Wazed described how his mother left Bangladesh during the unrest, and said India played the key role in protecting her. “India has essentially saved my mother’s life. If she hadn’t left Bangladesh, the militants had planned on killing her,” he said.
He admitted that his mother’s government had “mishandled” the early days of the July 2024 protests, but said the unrest later turned into an organised “political coup” rather than a natural public movement.