Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy says: 'Yunus is trying to bring Islamists to power in Bangladesh via rigged polls. Threat to India very real'

Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son and adviser of ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has warned that the interim government in Dhaka, headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is attempting to engineer a “rigged election” to bring Islamist forces to power, a development he said poses a “very real and imminent” security threat to India.

- S VENKAT NARAYAN

In his first detailed comments since Bangladesh announced elections for February 12 and barred the Awami League from participating, Joy alleged that the political vacuum created by banning major parties would be exploited by Islamist groups that have historically had little popular support. “By holding a rigged election where all progressive, liberal parties are banned, the Yunus regime is trying to establish the Islamists in power,” he said in an email interview with The Indian Express.

Joy’s remarks came on a day when India summoned Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to New Delhi to convey its “strong concerns” over the deteriorating security situation in Bangladesh and the activities of extremist elements threatening the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.

Fifty-four-year-old Joy, who lives in the United States, said the interim regime had given Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist groups a free hand. “In Bangladesh, the Islamists have never received more than five per cent of the vote.

Yet today, known AI Qaeda operatives are active, and commanders of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba have spoken at public events," he claimed.