New Delhi, 18 Jan

Deposed Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said she and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana escaped death by just 20-25 minutes on August 5 last year when her Awami League government was toppled in a student-led mass uprising.

In a brief audio note released by her party on its Facebook page, Hasina expressed her gratitude to God for saving her life.

She also recalled two previous attempts on her life she narrowly escaped and said she believed that God had saved her life as part of a divine design to get something greater done by her.

"We escaped death by just 20-25 minutes. I feel surviving the killings on August 21, surviving the large bomb in Kotalipara, or surviving on August 5, 2024, there must be a will of Allah, the hand of Allah. Otherwise, I wouldn't have survived this time," she is heard saying in Bangla in the audio clip.

In a trembling voice, the 77-year-old leader accused her political opponents of conspiring to get her killed.

Hasina has been living in India since August 5 last year when she fled Bangladesh following a massive student-led protest that toppled her Awami League's 16-year regime.

"I am suffering, I am without my country, my home, everything has been burned," said Hasina.

Hasina survived several attempts on her life including that of the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on a party rally where she was addressing as the opposition leader. Twenty-four people were killed in the attack.

In 2000, Hasina, then the prime minister of Bangladesh, was scheduled to speak at a rally in Kotalipara Upazila, Gopalganj District when police discovered a time bomb weighing 76 Kg 50 feet from the stage.

On August 5 last year, security forces gave her 45 minutes to evacuate her official Ganobhaban residence saying an angry mob was proceeding towards the government establishment and her life was in danger.

Hasina was initially flown to a nearby military air base and later an air force plane carried her along with Rehana to India.

Shortly after she left Ganobhaban, the mob vandalised the premier’s residence and set on fire her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's house-turned-museum at 32 Dhanmondi named after him.