WASHINGTON – The United States had no role in ousting Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who recently quit her position and fled the South Asian nation, the White House said on Aug 12, calling allegations of US interference “simply false”.

       “We have had no involvement at all. Any reports or rumours that the United States government was involved in these events are simply false,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing, when asked about reported claims of US involvement.

       A report in The Economic Times newspaper in India on Aug 11 had cited Ms Hasina as accusing the US of playing a role in ousting her because it wanted control over Bangladesh’s St Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal. The newspaper said she had conveyed that message to it through her close associates.

       Ms Hasina’s son, Mr Sajeeb Wazed, in a post on social media platform X on Aug 11, said she never made any such statement.

       The White House said: “We believe that the Bangladeshi people should determine the future of the Bangladeshi government and that’s where we stand.”

       An interim government in Bangladesh, led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, was sworn in on Aug 8, with the aim of holding elections in the Asian nation.

       Bangladesh was engulfed by demonstrations and violence after student protests in July against quotas that reserved a high portion of government jobs for certain groups escalated into a campaign to oust Ms Hasina.

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       She had won a fourth straight term in January in an election that the opposition boycotted and which the US State Department said was not free and fair.

       Ms Hasina went to New Delhi after leaving Bangladesh, ending her uninterrupted rule of 15 years. REUTERS