Bangladesh witnessing 'festivity of rumours' against interim govt: Muhammad Yunus

Dhaka/New Delhi: Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday said Bangladesh was witnessing a "festivity of rumours" against his administration, blaming it on "the defeated force" -- an apparent reference to deposed premier Sheikh Hasina’s regime.

"The rumours are big instruments of the defeated forces against the July-August (2024) Uprising," he said in a nationwide televised address on the eve of Bangladesh's 53rd Independence Day on March 26 when the country in 1971 declared independence from the then Pakistan followed by a nine-month Liberation War.

Unlike in past years, there would be no National Day military parade in the capital. District-level parades will take place as usual. Home Ministry Senior Secretary Nasimul Ghani recently said that the country is in a wartime mode.

In his address, Yunus called upon the countrymen to resist the rumour through awareness and greater unity.

He said that as the upcoming election, the date of which is yet to be decided, would come near, the rumours would take more dangerous shape. “You all know, who are behind the phenomenon and why they are spearheading these (rumours),” he said.

Yunus asked the people to look for the source of the rumour whenever they hear any such misleading gossip instead of ignoring them “as many experienced war experts are working round the clock spending unlimited money behind these rumours” with their “main objective to thwart the July Uprising”.

"Our overall unity is severely irritating them. They want to break the unity. You will not even realise their innovative techniques. You do not even understand when you became a pawn of their game,” he said.

Yunus added: “Always keep in mind we are in a war situation.” The interim government chief did not cite any specific example of such rumours but several of his advisers in the cabinet have said conspiracies were underway at home and abroad particularly using social media platforms to destabilise the government.

Yunus, however, said his administration sought United Nations cooperation to prevent the spread of rumours and disinformation and UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who recently visited Bangladesh, “assured us of extending the cooperation”.

Deposed premier Hasina’s regime was ousted in a student-led mass protest spearheaded by now-defunct Students against Discrimination on August 5, 2024.

Yunus, who was in France at that time, flew home and assumed the role of the Chief Adviser of the interim government three days later.

Yunus, whose experiment of poor men’s banking earned him the Nobel Peace Prize, was in a protracted row of the past regime for obscure reasons.

Several political parties and analysts said during Yunus’ past seven-month rule ultraright and Islamist elements created a space in the political arena and they were spearheading a campaign to sideline the forces in favour of the 1971 Liberation War.

Most leaders of the Awami League, which led the Liberation War in 1971, were arrested or on the run at home or abroad to evade trial on charges like mass murders and crimes against humanity in Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal.

"Some people, some parties, some groups are trying to make it seem as if 10971 never happened… trying to erase it from memory,” Secretary-General of ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party Mirza Faklhrul Islam Alamgir told a party rally on Tuesday.

"Those who once collaborated in the (Pakistani troops') massacre — those very people — are now speaking louder than ever," he said.

Two months ago, he said in an interview that "I can somehow smell, some quarters are trying to belittle the 1971 (liberation War)” while several of his party leaders have spoken in near identical tones in recent months.

Yunus, however, at the onset of his speech, recalled those who sacrificed their lives during the Liberation War, saying March 25 is a day of massacre that remains stigmatised in the history of human civilisation.

"On this night in 1971, the Pakistani occupation forces brutally opened fire on innocent, unarmed and sleeping Bangalees and killed thousands of people. Since March 25, the people of this country had raised armed resistance. Bangladesh became independent through a nine-month war," he said.