NEW DELHI: Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina had not resigned as prime minister before fleeing to India this week as anti-government protesters marched on her official residence, her son and adviser told Reuters on Saturday morning.
Hasina has been holed up in New Delhi since Monday following an uprising that killed about 300 people, many of them students, ending her unbroken 15-year rule in the country of 170 million people.
"My mother never officially resigned. She didn't have time," Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed told Reuters from Washington.
"She had planned to make a statement and tender her resignation. But then protesters started marching on the prime minister's residence. And there was no time. My mother hadn't even packed her bags. As far as the constitution is concerned, she remains the prime minister of Bangladesh."
He said that although the president had dissolved parliament after consultations with military chiefs and opposition politicians, the formation of an interim government without the prime minister formally resigning "can be challenged in court".
Wazed also said that Hasina's party, the Awami League, will contest the next election, which he said must be held within three months.
"I am sure that the Awami League will come to power. If not, we will be the opposition. Either way is fine," he said.
He said he was encouraged by a recent statement by Khaleda Zia, head of the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and an enemy of Hasina, that there should be no revenge or retaliation after Hasina fled.
"I was very happy to hear Mrs Khaleda Zia's statement that what's done is done," Wazed said. "Let us forget the past. Let us not pursue the politics of revenge. We are going to have to work together, whether it is a unity government or not."
He said he was "ready to work with the BNP... to have democratic elections in Bangladesh and restore democracy and work with them to ensure that in the future we have a peaceful democracy where there are free and fair elections."
"I think politics and negotiations are very important," he said. "We can discuss. We can agree to disagree. And we can always find a compromise."
Asked if he would be the Awami League's prime ministerial candidate, he said, "My mother was going to retire after this term anyway. If the party wants me to do it, maybe. I will definitely consider it."
He said his mother was ready to face trial in her country, as demanded by the students who led the uprising.
"The threat of arrest never scared my mother before," he said. "My mother hasn't done anything wrong. Just because people in her government did illegal things doesn't mean my mother ordered it. That doesn't mean my mother is responsible for that."
She didn't say who in the government was responsible for allowing people to be shot during the protests.
"A government is a big machine," Wazed said. "Those responsible must be brought to justice. My mother didn't order anyone to commit violence against protesters. The police were trying to stop the violence, but some police officers used excessive force."
"Our government immediately, and I was part of those conversations, I also told my mother that we had to immediately tell (our student section) not to attack, to stop the violence," she said.
"We suspended the police officers who shot at the students. We did everything we could."
She said she would return home whenever she wanted.
"I have never done anything illegal. So how is anyone going to stop me?" she said. "Political parties are not going anywhere. They cannot eliminate us. Without our help, without our supporters, they will not be able to bring stability to Bangladesh."
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