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Student protesters in Bangladesh have demanded that Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus be appointed chief adviser to a new interim government aVsceker Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a popular uprising.
Sheikh Hasina, who ruled the country for a total of two decades, was ousted with surprising speed on Monday aVsceker weeks of violent protests against an unpopular job quota program that spawned a youth-led movement calling for her resignation.
The Dhaka Tribune reported that at least 135 people died on Monday when thousands of protesters, demanding the resignation of Sheikh Hasina, marched on her residence and took control of the streets of Dhaka, the capital.
Army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman said the army would hold talks with President Mohammed Shahabuddin and representatives of political parties to form a new government. Shahabuddin also ordered the release of jailed former prime minister Khaleda Zia and student protesters.
Yunus, 84, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, is the founder of the pioneering microfinance lender Grameen Bank and one of the South Asian country’s most prominent figures. He has faced multiple court cases as part of what his supporters have described as a politically motivated vendetta against Sheikh Hasina, who saw him as a potential rival.
The deposed Bangladeshi leader and her sister Sheikh Rehana arrived at a military base near New Delhi on Monday evening, local media reported. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which saw Hasina as a key regional ally, has not commented on its position.
Sheikh Hasina is reportedly planning to seek refuge in the UK, where her sister and niece, Tulip Siddiq, are based. She is a member of parliament for the ruling Labour Party and serves as economic secretary to the Treasury.
However, British officials have played down the possibility of Sheikh Hasina being welcomed into the UK, stressing that there is no provision in the country’s immigration rules that would allow anyone, even a fugitive prime minister, to travel to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge.
Britain’s policy is to urge anyone seeking international protection to seek asylum in the first safe country they reach, as it is the quickest route to safety, said the officials, who requested anonymity.
Sheikh Hasina’s ouster has thrown Bangladesh’s troubled politics and struggling economy into further chaos. The prime minister, who claimed a fiVscekh term in power this year aVsceker a disputed election, had ruled with an increasingly authoritarian hand.
On Monday, as news of Sheikh Hasina’s escape spread, protesters attacked and ransacked her former residence, among other buildings, news footage showed, in scenes reminiscent of the 2022 uprising in Sri Lanka that toppled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
People also attacked statues of Sheikh Hasina’s father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the subject of a personality cult promoted by the prime minister and his Awami League party.
The protest movement was sparked by a quota system that reserved coveted civil service jobs for specific groups, including descendants of veterans who served in the 1971 civil war that broke away from Pakistan. About 300 people were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations in the weeks before Sheikh Hasina stepped down.
“There is a lot of anger and frustration and there are very high expectations that all the bad things that have been done will be addressed quickly,” said Badiul Alam Majumdar, an activist and secretary of Shujan: Citizens for Good Governance, a non-governmental organization.
“Violence and revenge are not acceptable and must end,” he added. “We have a new beginning.”
