Bangladesh awaits interim government, may include Nobel laureate Yunus

By Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) -Bangladesh’s army chief will meet student protest leaders on Tuesday as the country awaits the formation of a new government a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled following a violent uprising against her.

Traffic was lighter than usual in the usually chaotic streets of Dhaka and schools reopened with thin attendance after closing down in mid-July as protests against quotas in government jobs spiralled. About 300 people were killed and thousands injured in violence that ripped through the country.

Garment factories, which supply apparel to some of world’s top brands and are a mainstay of the economy, will remain closed on Tuesday and plans to reopen will be announced later, the main garment manufacturers association said.

Student leaders, who spearheaded the anti-quota movement that turned into a call for Hasina to resign, said early on Tuesday Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government.

“Any government other than the one we recommended would not be accepted,” Nahid Islam, one of the key organisers of the student movement, said in a video on Facebook with three other organisers. “We wouldn’t accept any army-supported or army-led government.”

People waves Bangladeshi flags on top the Ganabhaban, the Prime Minister’s residence, as they celebrate the resignation of PM Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 5, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
© Thomson Reuters

“We have also had discussions with Muhammad Yunus and he has agreed to take on this responsibility at our invitation,” Islam added.

Yunus, 84, and his Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace prize for work to lift millions out of poverty by granting tiny loans of under $100 to the rural poor of Bangladesh but he was indicted by a court in June on charges of embezzlement that he denied.

Reports said Yunus is currently in Paris and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. He told Indian broadcaster Times Now in a recorded interview that Monday marked the “second liberation day” for Bangladesh after its 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

People celebrate the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 5, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
© Thomson Reuters

But he said Bangladeshis were angry with neighbour India for allowing Hasina to land there after fleeing Dhaka.

“India is our best friend…people are angry at India because you are supporting the person who destroyed our lives,” Yunus said.

Hasina landed at a military airfield at Hindon near Delhi on Monday after leaving Dhaka, two Indian government officials told Reuters, adding that India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met her there. They did not elaborate on her stay or plans.

A man holding a Bangladesh flag stands in front of a vehicle that was set on fire at the Ganabhaban, the Prime Minister’s residence, after the resignation of PM Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 5, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
© Thomson Reuters

India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar addressed a closed door all-party meeting in parliament on Tuesday morning about the crisis in Bangladesh. No details were immediately available.

FRESH ELECTIONS PLANNED

Bangladesh army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman plans to meet the protest organisers at 12 noon local time (0600 GMT) on Tuesday, the army said in a statement, a day after Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised address and said an interim government would be formed.

Jubilant crowds stormed unopposed into the opulent grounds of Hasina’s residence after she fled, carrying out looted furniture and TVs. One man balanced a red velvet, gilt-edged chair on his head. Another held an armful of vases.

People celebrate the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 5, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
© Thomson Reuters

“I call upon the people of Bangladesh to display restraint and calm in the midst of this transitional moment on our democratic path,” Tarique Rahman, the exiled acting chief of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said in a post on X on Tuesday.

“It would defeat the spirit of the revolution…if people decide to take the law into their own hands without due process,” he added.

Army Chief Zaman said he had held talks with leaders of major political parties – excluding Hasina’s long-ruling Awami League – to discuss the way ahead and was due to hold talks with the president, Mohammed Shahabuddin.

An interim government will hold elections as soon as possible after consulting all parties and stakeholders, President Shahabuddin said in a televised address late on Monday.

He also said that it was “unanimously decided” to immediately release BNP chairperson and Hasina’s nemesis, Begum Khaleda Zia, who was convicted and jailed in a graft case in 2018 but moved to a hospital a year later as her health deteriorated. Zia, 78, is BNP acting chief Rahman’s mother and she has denied the charges against her.

A BNP spokesperson said on Monday that Zia was in hospital and “will clear all charges legally and come out soon”.

Hasina, 76, had ruled since winning a decades-long power struggle with Zia in 2009.

The Indian Express newspaper reported that Hasina was taken to a “safe house” after her arrival at Hindon and she was likely to travel to the United Kingdom. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul in Dhaka, Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Writing by Shivam Patel; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)