DHAKA, Bangladesh — A key organizer of Bangladesh student protests, Nobel Peace Prize laureate said Muhammad Yunus was his election as head of an interim government a day after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned.
The country’s president and military chief said Monday that an interim government would be formed soon.
Nahid Islam, the organizer, in a video posted on social media said that the leaders of the student protest have already spoken to Yunus, who agreed to take power considering the current situation in the country.
Yunus, who called Hasina’s resignation the country’s “second day of liberation,” faced a series of corruption allegations and was tried during the former prime minister’s rule. He received the Nobel Prize in 2006 after pioneering microcredit, and said the corruption charges against him were motivated by revenge.
Islam said the student protesters would announce more names for the government and that 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. fell into violence and became a broader challenge to his 15-year rule. Thousands of protesters stormed his official residence and other buildings associated with his party and his family.
His departure It threatened to create even more instability in the densely populated South Asian nation that is already grappling with a series of crises, from high unemployment to corruption and climate change. Amid security concerns, the main airport in Dhaka, the capital, suspended operations.
Violence just before and after his resignation left at least 109 dead and hundreds 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 of Hasina’s party in the southwestern city of Jashore. More violence in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, at least 25 people were reportedly killed. Another 10 people were killed in Dhaka’s Uttara neighborhood.
The military chief, General Waker-uz-Zamam, said he was temporarily taking control of the country and soldiers tried to stem the growing unrest. Mohammed Shahabuddin, the country’s figurehead president, announced on Monday night, after meeting with Waker-uz-Zamam and opposition politicians, that Parliament would be dissolved and a national government formed as soon as possible, leading to new elections.
Speaking after embattled leader Seen in television footage boarding a military helicopter with her sister, Waker-uz-Zaman sought to reassure a nervous nation that order would be restored. However, experts warned that the road ahead would be long.
The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, on Tuesday urged people to exercise restraint in what it called a “moment of transition on our democratic path.”
“It would defeat the spirit of the revolution that overthrew the illegitimate and autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina if the people decide to take the law into their own hands without due process,” Tarique Rahman, the party’s acting president, wrote on social media platform X. .
In a statement on Monday, United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk said the transition of power in Bangladesh must be “in line with the country’s international obligations” and “inclusive and open to the meaningful participation of all.” the Bangladeshis.”
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets waving flags and cheering to celebrate Hasina’s resignation. But some celebrations soon turned violent, with protesters attacking symbols of his government and his party, looting and setting fire to several buildings.
“This is not only the end of the tyrant Sheikh Hasina, with this we put an end to the mafia state that she has created,” said Sairaj Salekin, a student protester, on the streets of Dhaka.
The protests began peacefully last month when frustrated students demanded an end to a quota system for government jobs that they said favored those with connections to the prime minister’s Awami League party. But in the middle of a deadly repressionThe demonstrations became an unprecedented challenge for Hasina, highlighting the extent of economic difficulties in Bangladesh, where exports have fallen and foreign exchange reserves are depleting.
Waker-uz-Zaman promised that the army would investigate an offensive that had left almost 300 people dead since mid-July, one of the worst bloodshed in the country since the 1971 war of independence, and which had fueled outrage against the government. Nearly 100 people, including 14 police officers, were killed on Sunday, according to the country’s main Bengali-language daily, Prothom Alo. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.
“Keep faith in the military. We will investigate all murders and punish those responsible,” he stated.
The military wields significant political influence in Bangladesh, which has faced more than 20 coups or attempted coups since independence in 1971. But it was unclear whether Hasina’s resignation or the military chief’s calls for calm would be enough to end to the agitation.
Throughout the day, people continued to enter and leave Hasina’s official residence, where they set fires, removed furniture, and removed raw fish from refrigerators. They also gathered in front of the parliament building, where a banner reading “justice” was hanging.
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 burned important offices of the ruling party and two pro-government television stations, forcing both to go off the air.
Meanwhile, Hasina 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 says Hasina has been taken to a safe house and she is likely to travel to the UK.
The 76-year-old was elected to a fourth consecutive term in a January vote that was boycotted by her main opponents. Thousands of opposition members were jailed before the election, and the United States and the United Kingdom denounced the result as not credible, although the government defended it.
Hasina had cultivated ties with powerful countries, including neighbors India and China. But relations with the United States and other Western nations have been strained by the loss of civic freedoms in the predominantly Muslim nation of 170 million people.
Her political opponents have previously accused her of becoming increasingly autocratic and blamed the unrest on that authoritarian streak. In total, she served more than 20 years, longer than any other head of government.
Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, told the BBC he doubted his mother would make a political comeback, as she had done in the past, saying she was “very disappointed after all her hard work”.
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