DHAKA -UNS/AP : Muhammad Yunus – Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate – will lead the country’s interim government, the country’s presidency announced Wednesday following a meeting with military leaders, student protesters, and civil society members. The announcement was made after prime minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled amidst a mass uprising driven by student-led protests.
Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will head the country’s interim government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country amid a mass uprising against her rule led mostly by students.
The announcement early on Wednesday came from Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of President Mohammed Shahabuddin. Abedin spoke to The Associated Press over the phone.
The leaders of the student protests, the chiefs of the country’s three divisions of the military, and civil society members, as well as some business leaders held the meeting with the president for more than five hours late on Tuesday to decide on the head of the interim administration.
Bangladesh’s president dissolved Parliament Tuesday, clearing the way for new elections to replace the longtime prime minister who resigned and fled the country following weeks of demonstrations against her rule that descended into violence.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin also ordered the release of opposition leader Khaleda Zia from house arrest. Zia, a longtime rival of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was convicted on corruption charges by Hasina’s government in 2018.
On Tuesday, some senior positions in the military were reshuffled. The student protesters said they would not allow any military-backed government.
The streets of Dhaka, the capital, appeared calmer Tuesday, with no reports of new violence as jubilant protesters thronged the ousted leader’s residence. Some posed for selfies with soldiers guarding the building, where a day earlier angry protesters had looted furniture, paintings, flowerpots and chickens.
Dhaka’s main airport resumed operations after an eight-hour suspension.
The Bangladesh Police Association said it was launching a strike across the country because of a lack of security after numerous police stations were attacked on Monday and “many” officers were killed, though it didn’t give any number of the dead.
It said officers would not return to work unless their safety is assured. The association also apologized for violent police attacks on student protesters, saying officers had been “forced to open fire” and had been cast as the “villain.”
As the country waited for a new government to emerge, a key student leader said protesters wanted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus to head an interim government. Yunus — who is currently in Paris for the Olympics — called Hasina’s resignation the country’s “second liberation day.” He could not immediately be reached for comment, but a key organizer of the protests, Nahid Islam, said Yunus had agreed.
Islam said protesters would propose more names for the Cabinet and suggested that it would be difficult for those in power to ignore their wishes.
Hasina fled to India by helicopter on Monday as protesters defied military curfew orders to march on the capital, with thousands of demonstrators eventually storming her official residence and other buildings associated with her party and family.
Protests against a quota system for government jobs, which critics said favored people with connections to her party, grew into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule, which was marked by human rights abuses, corruption and allegations of rigged elections amid a brutal crackdown on her opponents.
