'Hasina wasn't willing to ...': The tense final hours before ex-Bangladesh PM fled country

The army gave Sheikh Hasina 45 minutes to prepare for the departure.

It was only after her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy stepped in, Sheikh Hasina agreed to resign as Bangladesh Prime Minister and leave the country.

"She wanted to stay, she did not want to leave the country at all. But we kept insisting that it wasn't safe for her. We were concerned for her physical safety first; so we persuaded her to leave," he told NDTV.

According to a report by Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo, Hasina was initially not ready to accept that the situation was out of her control. She first called a meeting of the chief of the three armed forces and the inspector general of police (IGP) around 10.30 am on Monday morning (August 5). Before that, late on August 4, one of her advisers tried to convince her to hand over power to the army but she refused.

The Prothom Alo report quoted several sources saying the Awami League president was upset as to why the security forces were unable to handle the situation. She asked them to tighten the curfew. Restrictions were in place from dawn, but protesters started breaking them after 9 am. By 10 am, the protesters took to the streets across Dhaka.

Hasina reportedly pointed to visuals of protesters climbing atop police vehicles and asked why the security brass was not cracking down harder. The report said the former Bangladesh PM reminded them that they had been elevated to these positions because she trusted them.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) told her  the situation had escalated to a level where it was unsustainable for the police to maintain such a strict stance for an extended period. Despite explaining that the situation could not be controlled by force alone, Hasina was unwilling to accept it, said the report. Officials were also holding talks with her sister Rehana to try convincing her older sibling to step down.

It was only after Joy spoke to Hasina that she agreed to resign.

Before she could board an aircraft to leave the country, Hasina wanted to record a farewell speech to be broadcast to the nation. But intelligence reports indicated that numerous students were marching towards Gonobhobon, the PM’s residence. It was estimated that the flood of people could reach Gonobhobon within 45 minutes. Given the urgency, the army gave her 45 minutes to prepare for the departure.

Around 2.30 pm, Hasina, along with Rehana, boarded the military aircraft bringing the curtain down on her 15-year uninterrupted term.