Just hours after Bangladesh’s prime minister resigned and fled the country on Monday, the country’s president said he would dissolve parliament and form an interim administration.
Mohammed Shahabuddin’s announcement, in a televised address to the nation, came at the end of a tumultuous day in which former prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India.
Weeks of violent student protests led to the overthrow of Hasina’s government on Monday, marking the end of her 15-year rule. Around 300 people were killed in the demonstrations.
Shahabuddin’s decision came after a meeting on Monday night with opposition political leaders, who decided to release the former prime minister Khaleda Ziawho was arrested in a corruption case in 2018. The meeting also decided to release all prisoners detained during the student anti-discrimination movement.
Zaynal Abedin, the president’s press secretary, told state news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha that the meeting, attended by leaders of several opposition political parties, unanimously decided to release Zia.
Zia, who is the head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and an arch political rival of Hasina, was arrested for misappropriating funds meant for orphans. But she lives in her home in Dhaka after the government released her on humanitarian grounds in 2022 and suspended her prison sentence.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh army said it would lift the curfew, in effect overnight, on Tuesday morning.
In a statement, the army said all government and private institutions will open from 6am (0000 GMT) on Tuesday.
Army chief Waker-Uz-Zamanhe called on protesting students to remain patient and refrain from further violence.
“Justice will be served for all these murders and atrocities. Please maintain trust in the army”, he asked.
Two coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement said in a statement that power should be handed over to the interim government.
“We will not accept any other proposal,” said the statement, signed by Nahid Islam and Ashif Mahmud.
“Fascist murderers will be punished in the country; they will not be allowed to escape,” he said, adding that all innocent civilians who were detained and political prisoners will be released.
Following the news of Hasina’s resignation, protesters set fire to the Awami League offices in Dhaka. Protesters seen dancing and chanting slogans against Hasina gathered on the Dhaka University campus, the initial site of protests against the controversial quota system for government jobs.
Thousands of protesters stormed the prime minister’s official residence, known as Ganabhaban, in Dhaka after she left the country.
In online footage, protesters can be seen looting items from the residence, swimming in the pool and smoking cigarettes in parliament members’ chambers.
Authorities had already given in to students’ demands to reform an unpopular job quota system, after protests in mid-July left more than 200 people dead.
Since then, protesters have called on the government to ensure justice for victims of police atrocities, lift the curfew and reopen educational institutions.
Over the weekend, students increased their demands and there were more violent clashes that reportedly led to around 100 more deaths, including 14 police officers.
Hasina has been criticized for being authoritarian by political opponents and international human rights groups. But her supporters call her the daughter of democracy.
Along with her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, she escaped a brutal military coup in 1975, which saw her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and most of her family murdered.
Returning from exile in 1981, Hasina assumed leadership of the Awami League party.
Under his guidance, the party played a key role in the “anti-autocrat” movements against military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad in the 1980s.
In 1996, she became prime minister for the first time after her party secured victory in parliamentary elections, marking the beginning of her five-year leadership.
Since then, his party has won several general elections, the most recent in 2024. However, opposition groups have alleged electoral fraud.
