Protesters who forced PM to flee want Nobel laureate to lead Bangladesh

Dhaka: A key organiser of Bangladesh’s student protests said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus was their choice as head of an interim government, a day after longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country.

The country’s figurehead president and the military chief said that an interim government would be formed soon.

Protesters climb a public monument in Dhaka as they celebrate the news of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation.Credit: AP

Protest organiser Nahid Islam said on social media said that leaders of the unrest have already talked with Yunus, who consented to take over considering the present situation of the country.

Yunus faced several corruption accusations and was put on trial during Hasina’s rule. He received the Nobel in 2006 after he pioneered micro-lending, and he said the corruption charges against him were motivated by vengeance.

Islam said the student protesters would announce more names for the government, and it would be a difficult challenge for the current leadership to ignore their choices.

Hasina resigned and fled the country on Monday after weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs descended into violence and grew into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule. Thousands of demonstrators have stormed her official residence and other buildings associated with her party and family.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has left the country after deadly protests, ending 15 years in power.Credit: AP

Her departure threatened to create even more instability in the densely populated South Asian nation that is already dealing with a series of crises, from high unemployment to corruption to climate change. Amid security concerns, the main airport in the capital Dhaka suspended operations.

Violence just before and after her resignation left at least 109 people dead and hundreds of others injured, according to media reports, which could not be independently confirmed.

More than a dozen were reportedly killed when protesters set fire to a hotel owned by a leader in Hasina’s party in the southwestern town of Jashore. More violence at Savar, just outside Dhaka, left at least 25 people dead, the reports said. Another 10 people died in Dhaka’s Uttara neighbourhood.

The military chief, General Waker-uz-Zaman, said he was temporarily taking control of the country, and soldiers tried to stem the growing unrest.

A protester throws a rubber tire on fire during a protest against Sheikh Hasina and her government in Dhaka.Credit: AP

Mohammed Shahabuddin, the country’s figurehead president, announced late on Monday after meeting with Waker-uz-Zaman and opposition politicians that parliament would be dissolved and a national government would be formed as soon as possible, leading to fresh elections.

Speaking after the embattled leader was seen in television footage boarding a military helicopter with her sister, Waker-uz-Zaman sought to reassure a jittery nation that order would be restored. Experts, though, warned the road ahead would be long.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Tuesday urged people to exercise restraint in what it said was a “transitional moment on our democratic path.”

Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus .Credit: AP

“It would defeat the spirit of the revolution that toppled the illegitimate and autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina if people decide to take the law into their own hands without due process,” Tarique Rahman, the party’s acting chairman, wrote on the social media platform X.

Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets waving flags and cheering to celebrate Hasina’s resignation. But some celebrations soon turned violent, with protesters attacking symbols of her government and party, ransacking and setting fires in several buildings.

“This is not just the end of the tyrant Sheikh Hasina, with this we put an end to the mafia state that she has created,” declared Sairaj Salekin, a student protester, on the streets of Dhaka.

Protests began peacefully last month as frustrated students demanded an end to a quota system for government jobs that they said favoured those with connections to the prime minister’s Awami League party.

But amid a deadly crackdown, the demonstrations morphed into an unprecedented challenge to Hasina, highlighting the extent of economic distress in Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi military forces on armoured vehicles patrol on the streets of Dhaka last month.Credit: AP

It is not clear if Hasina’s resignation or the military’s calls for calm would be enough to end the turmoil.

Throughout the day, people continued to pour into and out of Hasina’s official residence, where they set fires, carried out furniture and pulled raw fish from the refrigerators. They also massed outside the parliament building, where a banner reading “justice” was hung.

Crowds also ransacked Hasina’s family’s ancestral home-turned-museum where her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s first president and independence leader, was assassinated.

They torched major offices of the ruling party and two pro-government TV stations, forcing both to go off air.

Hasina, meanwhile, landed at a military airfield near New Delhi on Monday after leaving Dhaka and met India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, The Indian Express newspaper reported. The report said Hasina was taken to a safe house and is likely to travel to the United Kingdom.

The 76-year-old was elected for a fourth consecutive term in a January vote that was boycotted by her main opponents. Thousands of opposition members were jailed before the polls, and the United States and the UK denounced the result as not credible, though the government defended it.

Hasina had cultivated ties with powerful countries, including neighbours India and China. But relations with the US and other Western nations have been strained over lost civic freedoms, and her political opponents have previously accused her of growing increasingly autocratic.

AP

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