Blitz Bureau
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as head of an interim government of Bangladesh after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign and flee the country amid mass protests against her rule led mostly by students. Yunus who was in Paris had returned to Dhaka on August 8.
Lawlessness gripped the country after more than a month of unrest, which began as protests against a plan for quotas in government jobs but turned into an anti-Hasina movement.
Hundreds of people were killed in the police crackdown, but later the military also turned against Hasina, who had been in power since 2009. A day before, the army chief held a meeting with his generals and decided that troops would not open fire on civilians to enforce a curfew, two serving army officers with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters, according to The Daily Star.
Islamic radicals which had also joined the student protests flooded the streets of Dhaka on August 5 demanding she resign. Hours before they stormed and looted the former PM’s official residence in the capital Dhaka, she resigned and fled the country. Later, she landed in India. Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised address to the nation and said an interim government would be formed.
In the wake of Hasina’s departure, members of the minority communities, mostly Hindus, were targeted. Many are reported to have been killed and their places of worship desecrated. Some leaders of Hasina’s party, Awami League, were also killed and their properties torched.
Earlier, students refused to accept a military-led government and pushed for Prof Yunus to lead the interim administration. The decision on Prof Yunus followed a meeting between President Mohammed Shahabuddin, military leaders and student leaders. President Mohammed Shahabuddin ordered the release of Hasina’s archrival Khaleda Zia, who heads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and many other opposition leaders. He also sacked the national police chief named a replacement, his office said.
“Let’s not indulge in destruction, revenge, vengeance — let us build a society based on love, peace, and knowledge,” Khaleda said in a three-minute-long video message played out at a mammoth rally at the capital’s Nayapaltan, according to The Daily Star. An economist and banker by profession, Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering the use of microcredit to help impoverished people, particularly women.
