Dhaka: A top aide of Sk Hasina has claimed that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the family of former American president Bill Clinton were behind the 2024 uprising in Bangladesh, resulting in the former Bangladeshi prime minister’s ouster.
Speaking to Russia Today, Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, a former minister in the Hasina cabinet, also claimed a nexus between USAID and the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus.
USAID is the largest humanitarian arm of the US government, which was on the target of the Department of Government Efficiency when Elon Musk was at its helm.
“Certain actions of some NGOs, especially from the US, I mean USAID to name a few, for example, or the International Republican Institute. They were running campaigns against our government for a while, since 2018,” Chowdhury said.
In the past, even Hasina accused Yunus of “selling the nation to the US”. According to her, the US always eyed the St Martin’s Island – located at a strategic point in the Bay of Bengal – but her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was against handing it over.
Such claims have been rejected by the US as “laughable”.
In the interview, Chowdhury alleged the unrest was “carefully planned” and funded to benefit Western interests. He also claimed that the Clinton family and the Yunus regime had a long history, and they had been trying to bring regime change for a long time.
“There is a nexus between the Clinton family and the interim Yunus regime from a very long past. These activities were going on for a long time. They weren’t very open, but funding of clandestine NGOs was going on. They were hell-bent on changing the government in Bangladesh,” he said.
The former minister claimed that millions of dollars in USAID funds were used for “regime change activities” in Bangladesh. “The chaos was carefully planned with this money, and it turned into a big riot,” Chowdhury said.
Violence erupted on the streets of Dhaka in July-August 2024. The trigger was an old reservation policy of the government for the families of Mukti Joddhas, who had fought for the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. Though Hasina has brought about an end to the policy, the protesters turned against her.
Nearly 700 people lost their lives after the government cracked down on the protesters. Hasina fled Bangladesh on August 5, 2024, fearing for her life, minutes before a mob went on a rampage at her residence. She now lives in Delhi.
Yunus arrived from the US and took over as head of the interim government within days of the fall of Hasina’s government. This raised eyebrows on the involvement of the US in the matter all through.
As far as India is concerned, the Yunus-led government has caused some discomfort after moving closer to Pakistan, the country that perpetrated a genocide in Bangladesh in 1971.
