Yunus Backed By Terrorists, Rohingya Corridor Ploy To Sell St Martin's Island: Sheikh Hasina

Last Updated:June 11, 2025, 22:37 IST

Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that interim advisor Muhammad Yunus is undermining Bangladesh’s access to the seas.

Sheikh Hasina accuses Nobel laureate of trying to barter away Bangladesh’s strategic island in a failed bid to curry favor with foreign powers. (IMAGE: REUTERS)

Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said interim government advisor Muhammad Yunus ascent to his current role was backed by terrorists and under his interim rule there has been a rise in crimes, violence is the norm and there is a ploy to “sell the nation’s sovereignty".

“Women feel unsafe in our cities. During Eid, foreigners visited Bangladesh and people from urban centres went to villages to celebrate Eid with their families. Now no one goes to rural Bangladesh fearing they will be robbed by terrorists who have overseen the ascent of Yunus," Hasina said.

The leader who is currently living in exile in India said that Yunus is taking steps that threaten the sovereignty of Bangladesh, referring to the “Rohingya corridor" proposal.

Hasina said Yunus is backing the “Rohingya corridor" proposal in a bid to sell St. Martin’s Island and undermine Bangladesh’s access to the seas.

The idea originated from a UN suggestion during Secretary-General António Guterres’s visit and was later discussed by Nobel Peace laureate Yunus.

“Selling the nation, selling and undermining our access to the sea is what he is doing. This Rohingya corridor is a ploy to sell St Martin’s Island and undermine our access to the seas," Hasina said in a speech streamed live on Facebook.

Months before accusing US of attempting to undermine Bangladesh’s sovereignty by seeking control of the St. Martin Island, ousted Bangladesh ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina had warned that a ‘white man’ came to tempt her with an offer.

She also said that her re-election process, in the 2024 general elections that the US and the West raised concerns about, would have been smoother if she allowed a foreign country to build an airbase inside Bangladeshi territory.

Hasina told Awami League workers August last year that she ‘could have remained in power if I had left St. Martin and the Bay of Bengal to America’, according to a report by The Print.

The ousted Prime Minister said Yunus has failed to stem the influx of refugees and the numbers of refugees has only swelled.

Hasina, her rival Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh ist Party (BNP) and t he Bangladesh Army have warned the corridor could become a “foreign‑controlled buffer zone".

The Army Chief Wakar-Uz-Zaman labeled it a potential “bloody corridor" and demanded decisions be made only by an elected government. Under mounting pressure from the military, opposition parties, and public opinion, Yunus’s interim government backpedaled. Officials clarified that no corridor deal had been finalized.

Bangladesh hosts 1.3 million Rohingya refugees in temporary settlements like Cox’s Bazar.

In her speech, Hasina also said that members of her party, the Awami League, are brutally killed in broad daylight and Yunus has failed to protect the Bangladeshi citizens.

She also said that under Yunus the nation has lost its status as a garment exporter and that he has been involved in corruption and has assumed his current role in order to fill his coffers.

News world Yunus Backed By Terrorists, Rohingya Corridor Ploy To Sell St Martin's Island: Sheikh Hasina