Hasina's son Joy: Bangladesh 'has become Pakistan'
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- Sajeeb Wazed Joy, addressing a Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia event in New Delhi via video link from his mother, warned Bangladesh had 'become another Pakistan' and that India should be concerned about rising extremism.
- Sheikh Hasina, in her first public address since her August 2024 ouster and exile, alleged convicted militants had been released and that thousands of Awami League leaders, police, journalists, lawyers, judges and minority community members had faced arrests and torture since her fall.
- Hasina vowed to return to Bangladesh despite cases against her, saying 'They may jail me, they may kill me... anything may happen, but I still have to return,' framing her return as restoring 'security, development, prosperity and peace.'
- Joy claimed Bangladesh's economy had collapsed under the Muhammad Yunus regime and that it will become a rogue state; he flagged discrepancies in death tolls (UN reported 1,400 vs. government's 800) and alleged an 'unprecedented indemnity' was granted to protesters who killed policemen.
- Bangladesh-Pakistan relations have markedly improved since the 2024 regime change: direct sea trade resumed for the first time since 1971, bilateral trade rose ~27% between August and December 2024, Pakistan's foreign minister visited Dhaka in 2025 (the first such trip in over a decade), and direct flights resumed in January.
- Former diplomat Aminul Hoque Polash cited the 2004 Ten Truck Arms Haul — in which former Home Minister Lutfozzaman Babar was convicted but acquitted by the Bangladesh High Court on January 14, 2025 — to challenge official claims that militancy has not returned.
Why it matters: The Yunus-led interim government has actively rebuilt Bangladesh-Pakistan ties — direct sea trade resumed for the first time since 1971, bilateral trade rose roughly 27% in just four months, and Pakistan's foreign minister made his first Dhaka visit in over a decade. Hasina's vow to return despite cases against her sets up a confrontation that tests the interim government's hold on power and forces India to weigh its position with a leader it sheltered but who now accuses Dhaka of rehabilitating Islamists.
