Awami League leaders in India ‘plot’ political return as Bangladesh nears election: Guardian

Exiled Awami League members have been plotting a political return from India as Bangladesh prepares for its first national election since Sheikh Hasina’s government was toppled by mass protests, The Guardian reports.

Writing on Tuesday, the UK-based newspaper said senior party leaders now living in Kolkata see the ousted prime minister’s return as possible even though the party has been suspended, barred from contesting in the Feb 12 election and its leadership faces serious criminal charges at home.

Awami League leaders are listed as fugitives accused of crimes including murder, sedition, embezzlement and crimes against humanity in numerous cases in Bangladesh. Yet, The Guardian reports, in shopping malls and food courts in Kolkata, party figures meet openly, discussing strategy over coffee while plotting a political revival.

More than 16 months ago, protests against Hasina’s rule forced her to flee by helicopter to India as demonstrators advanced on her residence. Her regime’s final crackdown on protesters in the July Uprising left as many as 1,400 dead, according to a UN report.

Thousands of party activists reportedly escaped afterwards amid mob violence and criminal cases, with more than 600 reportedly taking shelter in Kolkata, close to the Bangladesh border.

The Guardian detailed how former ministers and party figures, who are deemed fugitives at home, have used the city as a base to organise and communicate with their cadre. 

While the interim government suspended the party last May, banning its activities and preventing it from contesting the upcoming polls, these officials remain defiant in the face of charges including murder, sedition, and crimes against humanity.

Late last year, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Awami League chief Hasina to death by hanging for crimes against humanity committed during the final phase of her regime.

Far from seeing her political career as finished, Hasina dismissed the verdict as “false” and has unabashedly been scheming her return from India, including mobilising thousands of her supporters to disrupt the upcoming election, the British daily said.

Hasina spends long hours in meetings and calls with party figures in Bangladesh from her guarded hideout in Delhi under the watch of Indian authorities, which have ignored Dhaka’s extradition requests, the report says.

Senior leaders, including former MPs and ministers, have travelled from Kolkata to Delhi to discuss strategy, it added.

Saddam Hussain, president of the Awami League’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League, was quoted as saying: “Our leader Sheikh Hasina is in constant communication with our people in Bangladesh… She’s trying to make our party ready for the upcoming struggle.”

The Muhammad Yunus-led interim government has labelled the Bangladesh Chhatra League a “terrorist organisation”. Hussain faces charges of sedition and crimes against humanity, which he denies.

“She [Hasina] will be in calls and meetings sometimes 15 or 16 hours in a day,” he added. “Our leader is very hopeful she will return to Bangladesh. We believe Sheikh Hasina will come back as a hero.”

Several elections under Hasina’s governments were overshadowed by widespread allegations of heavy vote rigging. The interim government, led by Nobel laureate Yunus, has promised February’s polls will be Bangladesh’s first free and fair polls in over a decade.

But the Awami League argues that to stop them from contesting “undermines” all claims of democratic legitimacy.

They have accused Yunus -- who was loathed and persecuted by Hasina, who saw him as a political rival -- of being a “devil” carrying out his own revenge vendetta against their leader. Yunus has dismissed such claims.

“We are telling our workers to avoid all involvement in the election, boycott all campaigning and voting and not participate in this sham process at all,” said Jahangir Kabir Nanak, one of Hasina’s former ministers, who is also facing crimes against humanity charges that he denies.

The report said critics inside Bangladesh have greeted the party’s new rhetoric on democracy and human rights with scepticism after years of documented abuses under Hasina’s rule, including enforced disappearances, torture, secret detention centres and the erosion of press freedom and judicial independence.

However, The Guardian notes that Yunus administration has also faced allegations of abuses, including the use of anti-terror laws against journalists, restrictions on free speech, failures to protect minorities and a deterioration in law and order.

The tribunal that sentenced Hasina has drawn criticism for not meeting international standards.

Amid continuing violence, Awami League leaders allege hundreds of their supporters have been attacked, killed or jailed without bail. Many remain in hiding.

“We don’t stay in Kolkata because we fear prison,” said Saddam. “We’re here because if we go back, we will be killed.”

GEOPOLITICAL FRICTION

The Guardian reported growing unease over India allowing the activities of a suspended party on its soil and sheltering wanted figures.

Relations between Dhaka and New Delhi have “cooled”, though Awami League officials in Kolkata said they “do not fear” deportation.

Tensions sharpened last week when Hasina delivered her first public address since fleeing, from Delhi, condemning the election and accusing Yunus of “forcibly taking power” and turning Bangladesh into a “blood-soaked nation”.

Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said allowing the event was “a clear affront to the people and the government of Bangladesh”. India did not respond.

The Guardian says senior leaders in Kolkata showed little remorse for alleged abuses, rejecting the uprising as a “conspiracy”.

AFM Bahauddin Nasim, joint general secretary and former MP, was cited calling the charges “bogus, bogus, bogus”.

The report said the comeback strategy hinges on the election failing to deliver stability, which leaders believe would turn voters back to the Awami League.

Tanvir Shakil Joy, a former Awami League MP who has been living in Kolkata since August 2024, was one of the few who would acknowledge past “mistakes”.

“I can admit we were not saints,” said Joy. “We were authoritarian. We were not fully democratic. I would agree that the 2018 election was not fully functional. We would have hoped it could be more fair and transparent, that’s unfortunate.”

Like others, Joy predicted his exile would be brief, though jail may await on return. “Things are very dark for us now,” he said. “But I don’t think they will remain so for long.”