Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, announced her resignation on Monday, following weeks of deadly anti-government protests that rocked the country in South Asia.
The 76-year-old Ms. Hasina left the nation and is said to have arrived in India on Monday. Exuberant mobs flocked to the streets to celebrate the news, and some of them even stormed the prime minister’s apartment, allegedly stealing and damaging elements of her previous home.
The military would start negotiations to establish a transitional administration, according to Army Chief Waker-Uz-Zaman.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin issued an order to free opposition leader and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who was imprisoned, just hours after Ms. Hasina resigned.
Waker-uz-Zaman declared the formation of an interim administration in a televised speech on Monday afternoon. In the hopes that a “solution” would be reached by the end of the day, he stated that he would meet with President Mohammed Shahabuddin.
The leader of the army claimed to have already conferred with the opposition political groups in the nation, but he did not specify who would lead the new administration. “All killings, all injustice” would be “examined,” he said, pleading for Bangladeshis to have faith in the army.
It was observed that protesters were removing furniture from the prime minister’s home.
Government facilities, including police headquarters, were attacked and set on fire in Dhaka. A statue of Ms. Hasina’s father, independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was targeted by demonstrators.
Units of the army and police were stationed throughout the city. Before being resumed, mobile phone service was interrupted for a few hours.
The AFP news agency reported that at least 66 people had died on Monday.
With her Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist party having long been rivals, Ms. Hasina’s departure creates a void in Bangladeshi politics.
There have been multiple military takeovers in the nation; the most recent was in 2007.
Senior economist Debapriya Bhattacharya of the Dhaka-based Centre for Policy Dialogue told the BBC that although there had been “euphoria” in the streets following the resignation, attacks on the Hindu minority had intensified, presenting an urgent challenge to the new government.
“There’s a perception that India fully supports Sheikh Hasina’s administration. There has already been violence against persons and temples as a result of protesters’ lack of difference between Hindu residents of Bangladesh and those in India.
“There’s a power vacuum right now, no one to enforce the law. Religious minorities must be safeguarded by the incoming administration.”
According to Ms. Hasina’s allies, she would not go back into politics in her home nation. The previous prime minister took office in 1996 and has served in that capacity for a total of twenty years.
Sajeeb Wazed Joy, her son, said on the BBC’s Newshour program: “She is in her late seventies. She feels so let down that, after all of her efforts, a minority has decided to rebel against her, and she believes she is finished.
“My family and I are done.”
Opponents claim that Ms. Hasina’s reign was marked by extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and the repression of opposition leaders and government critics.
However, Mr. Wazed, a technical advisor to the prime minister as well, upheld his mother’s record.
“In the past fifteen years, she has transformed Bangladesh.
“It was seen as a failed state when she assumed power. The nation was impoverished.
“Until today, it was viewed as one of the rising tigers of Asia.”
Since protests over a government job quota system erupted a month ago, almost 300 people have died. After the protests were violently suppressed by the government, a larger anti-government movement emerged.
The country’s high unemployment rates, according to Dr. Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, have made the quotas—which reserve a third of civil service jobs for descendants of veterans of the nation’s 1971 independence war with Pakistan—a particularly contentious political issue.
“Public sector job quotas – with 400,000 new graduates competing for 3,000 civil service jobs – created a lightning rod for anti-government unrest,” said Dr. Bajpaee.
He continued by saying that the rapidity of events was a reflection of Bangladeshi youth’s dissatisfaction with the nation’s “one-party rule” for the last 15 years.
“In a country with such a vibrant civil society, attempts to curb political freedoms and free speech were bound to trigger a blowback.”
In response to a Supreme Court decision last month, the government reduced the quota by the majority. Students persisted in their protests, calling for Ms. Hasina’s resignation as well as justice for the slain and maimed.
According to Mr. Bhattacharya, demonstrators now anticipate that the new administration would abide by their requests for democratic reforms, increased employment opportunities, and enhancements to the educational system.
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Source
CNN
