Yunus introduces student activist as 'brains' behind Hasina's ouster

Bangladesh's chief advisor Muhammad Yunus introduced to an American audience in New York the “brains” behind the "meticulously designed" protests that led to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina from power.

Introducing the students at Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting on Tuesday, where Yunus was welcomed by former US president Bill Clinton, the Nobel laureate suggested the protests against then prime minister Hasina and her Awami League were planned.

"These are known to be the brains behind the whole revolution. They look like any other young person, you will not recognise them. But when you see them in action, when you hear them speak, you will be shaking. They shook the whole country," said the 84-year-old Nobel laureate while introducing Bangladeshi student leaders.

Yunus specifically pointed towards student activist "Mahfuj Abdullah", and called him the "brains behind the whole revolution".

"He denies it repeatedly, he said not me many others. But that's how he is recognised, that he is the brain behind the whole thing," Yunus said.

"It was a meticulously designed thing. It just did not suddenly come. Very well-designed. Even the leadership did not know (him) so they could not catch him," Yunus said about the protests in Bangladesh that left more than 600 persons dead.

"This is the Bangladesh. They are the ones creating the new version of Bangladesh," Yunus said of the student activists.

The leader said the protesting students "courageously stood against bullets" when the previous government acted against them.

“Suddenly all the young people of Bangladesh got together and said, ‘Enough is Enough.' We are not going to take it anymore. And they didn't,” Yunus said, adding that everyone in the country supported the "new Bangladesh".

The economist was appointed as the country's “chief advisor” in August after the bloody student-led movement led to the resignation of Hasina and her escape to India. "Conspiracies are still on to carve a new country out of Bangladesh, like East Timor," Hasina had said in an earlier interview, raising concerns the protests were hijacked by external forces.

Hasina had claimed she was approached by a "white man" for a smooth re-election in the 2024 general elections boycotted by the opposition parties in return for an airbase in the country.

The Awami League supremo also said the "white man" was also targeting several other nations with his offers.