A dramatic revelation in the forthcoming book 'Inshallah Bangladesh: The Story of an Unfinished Revolution' claims that a single phone call from India changed the course of history -- and saved Sheikh Hasina’s life, reported News18.
According to the book, written by Deep Halder, Jaideep Mazumdar, and Sahidul Hasan Khokon and published by Juggernaut, the former Bangladeshi Prime Minister was still inside Ganabhaban in Dhaka around 1:30 pm on August 5, 2024, when she received a call from “a top official in India whom Sheikh Hasina knew well.” Within minutes of that call, she decided to flee -- a decision that, as the authors suggest, spared her from meeting the same fate as her father.
Earlier that day, panic had been mounting. The mob was already less than two kilometres away from Ganabhaban, and Hasina’s military chiefs -- General Waker-uz-Zaman of the Army, along with the Air Force and Navy heads -- had repeatedly urged her to leave. She refused. Even her sister, Sheikh Rehana, and her son, Sajeeb Wajeed, speaking from the United States, failed to convince her. “She would rather die than flee her country,” the book recounts.
Then the call came. “It was a short call,” the authors write. “The official told Sheikh Hasina that it was already too late, and if she didn’t leave Gonobhaban immediately, she would be killed. He also told her that she should live to fight another day.” She was reportedly taken aback and for half an hour, she wrestled with the decision.
Hasina requested permission to record a farewell speech before departing, but her security chiefs denied the request, fearing that “the mob was about to crash into Ganabhaban.” Sheikh Rehana then reportedly pulled her sister into an SUV and rushed her to the helipad. They carried only two suitcases with clothes.
At 2:23 pm, a chopper lifted off from Ganabhaban, landing at Tejgaon air base twelve minutes later. By 2:42 pm, a C-170J cargo aircraft soared into “the overcast skies,” entering Indian airspace over Malda roughly twenty minutes later. “The take-off coincided with another short spell of showers,” the book narrates.
That same evening, the plane landed at Hindon Airbase near Delhi. Waiting there was India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who received Hasina and escorted her to an undisclosed safe location, the report said -- marking the beginning of her exile in India.
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