Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the son of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, tells DW in an exclusive interview that his mother resigned and fled the country "to avoid bloodshed."
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00:00We don't want violence, but you cannot have democracy in Bangladesh without Awamalik and frankly the BNP.
00:08BNP and Awamalik are the two largest political parties in Bangladesh.
00:12How can you possibly have democracy without BNP and Awamalik?
00:22Thank you. It's because she did not want to use force against the demonstrators.
00:27At that point, she had ordered the police and the military not to use force, not to use lethal force at all.
00:36And when the demonstrators decided that they would march on the Prime Minister's residence,
00:44she had told us, told me on the phone that I will not have the blood of students on my hands and I would rather resign.
00:55So she had planned to resign and announce her resignation and make an orderly constitutional transition.
01:04But once they started marching on, so when they marched to the military, the army barricades,
01:12the troops fired in the air, but they were under instructions not to use force on the students.
01:19So when the students didn't stop, even after firing in the air, the army, there was nothing much they could do.
01:26The students started marching and as they were approaching the Prime Minister's residence,
01:32that's when we started urging her to leave the country.
01:40No, not at all. Not at all.
01:43Actually, she did not want to leave the country.
01:45Even when the military, our SSF, they took her to a safe location in the cantonment.
01:54And at that point, when she went to the military airfield, she did not want to get on the helicopter.
02:03She was actually telling my aunt, you go ahead, I'm going to stay.
02:07My aunt called me, put me on the phone, and we persuaded her, no, you have to leave because otherwise they will kill you.
02:13So the pressure to leave was actually from us, from the family, from me, not from anyone else.
02:26Yes, mistakes were made. I think there were some mistakes made.
02:29But I also think that the protests were incited way beyond what they should have been.
02:36If you look at the evening of July, the night of July 15th, that is when the violence started.
02:42And if you look at the incidents then, you see my mother made a statement that we don't want families of Rajakars getting government jobs.
02:52So she was trying to explain the justification for the quota.
02:56You see, this whole thing was clearly incited because then some groups started spreading that she had called the students Rajakars.
03:04That is not what she said at all.
03:06And furthermore, so that night at Dhaka University, you had some group and no one seems to know who they are.
03:23I mean, I have no opinion on that remains to be seen.
03:26That is whom they seem to have chosen and we shall see how he does.
03:34Shek Hasina has not made any decision to go anywhere at all.
03:42She has not completely left Bangladesh. She never wanted to.
03:46At first, we thought this would be a good time to retire.
03:49This was going to be her last term.
03:51But given the violence against our own party members, so what happened is our party members are being attacked throughout the country.
04:00Dhaka is somewhat peaceful because the army is deployed.
04:03But outside of Dhaka, there is no law enforcement.
04:06There is no law and order.
04:08And our party people started getting attacked.
04:10Almost everyone's homes have been burned down.
04:12So at this point, what people underestimate is that the Awamal League is the largest political party in Bangladesh.
04:19The Awamal League is not weak. The Awamal League is not dead.
04:22We did not wish to be blamed for violence during the protests.
04:29Now we are no longer in charge.
04:31Awamal League is not in government, but the Awamal League has to defend itself.
04:34And we don't want violence.
04:37But you cannot have democracy in Bangladesh without Awamal League.
04:42And frankly, the BNP, BNP and Awamal League are the two largest political parties in Bangladesh.
04:48How can you possibly have democracy without BNP and Awamal League?
04:53Sooner or later, BNP or Awamal League will be in power.
04:56That is a matter of fact, as long as there is democracy.