US denies any role in ousting Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina

The United States had played no role in ousting Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who recently quit her position and fled the country, said the White House while calling allegations of American interference as “simple false”, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.

When asked about the reports of US involvement in Bangladesh at a news briefing on Monday, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said “We have had no involvement at all. Any reports or rumors that the United States government was involved in these events is simply false.”

A report in the Economic Times newspaper in India on Sunday had cited Hasina as accusing the US of playing a role in ousting her because it wanted control over Bangladesh’s Saint Martin island in the Bay of Bengal. The newspaper said Hasina had conveyed that message to it through her close associates.

Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed, in a post on X on Sunday, said she never made any such statement. “We believe that the Bangladeshi people should determine the future of the Bangladeshi government and that’s where we stand,” the White House added.

An interim government in Bangladesh, led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, was sworn in on Thursday with the aim of holding elections in the Asian nation.

Bangladesh was engulfed by demonstrations and violence after student protests last month against quotas that reserved a high portion of government jobs for certain groups escalated into a campaign to oust Hasina.

She had won a fourth straight term in January in an election that the opposition boycotted and which the U.S. State Department said was not free and fair.