Bangladesh: student movement calls for Muhammad Yunus as head of interim government

The leader of the main student movement behind the protests in Bangladesh on Tuesday called for Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to lead the interim government, a day after the military seized control of the country and the prime minister fled abroad.

The protests against hiring quotas in the administration, which have left at least 413 dead since the beginning of July, have finally led to the departure of Sheikh Hasina, 76, who left the country aboard a helicopter.

The head of the Bangladeshi army, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, who is due to meet with the leaders of the student movement on Tuesday, had announced on Monday the imminent formation of an interim government, promising to repair “all injustices” and the lifting of the curfew as of Tuesday.

The students are also calling for the dissolution of parliament, as is the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is demanding elections within three months.

“We trust Dr Yunus,” Asif Mahmud, a senior leader of the Students Against Discrimination group, wrote on Facebook.

Mr Yunus has not commented. But in an interview with the Indian newspaper The Print, he said Bangladesh had been “an occupied country” under Ms Hasina.

“Today, all the people of Bangladesh feel liberated,” he said.

Yunus, 84, is known for lifting millions out of poverty through his pioneering microfinance bank, but he has drawn the lingering enmity of Hasina, who has accused him of “sucking the blood” of the poor.

Currently in Europe, a close aide said Monday that Yunus had not received any offer from the military to lead the interim government.

– “So happy” –

Anti-government protesters storm the palace of fleeing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on August 5, 2024 © AFP – K M ASAD

The president and army chief also met President Mohammed Shahabuddin late Monday, as well as top opposition leaders. The president's press office said it had been “decided to form an interim government immediately.”

The situation was calm in Dhaka on Tuesday.

While traffic resumed and shops reopened, government offices remained closed, a day after violence that left at least 113 people dead.

After Mr Waker's speech, millions of Bangladeshis took to the streets of Dhaka on Monday. “I am so happy that our country has been liberated,” said Sazid Ahnaf, 21, comparing the events to Bangladesh's war of independence that led to its separation from Pakistan in 1971.

Having returned to power in 2009, Hasina won a fifth term in January in an election without any real opposition.

Bangladesh protests © AFP – John SAEKI, Janis LATVELS

Protesters stormed parliament on Monday, torched pro-government television stations and smashed statues of Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's father, a hero of the country's independence.

Offices of Hasina's Awami League party were torched and looted across the country, witnesses told AFP. Shops and homes belonging to Hindus – a group considered by some in the Muslim-majority country to be close to Hasina – were also attacked, witnesses said.

– 'Need answers' –

The protests began in early July after the reintroduction of a system reserving nearly a third of government jobs for descendants of war veterans. The movement has intensified over the days, leading to calls for Hasina to resign.

Her government has been accused by human rights groups of using institutions to entrench its grip and stamp out dissent.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin ordered the release of those arrested during the protests late Monday.

Former Prime Minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia, 78, was also released on Tuesday, according to the spokesperson for her party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. A major rival of Ms Hasina, the head of the BNP had been sentenced to 17 years in prison for corruption in 2018.

As early as Tuesday in Dhaka, the mothers of some of the hundreds of political prisoners secretly imprisoned under Ms Hasina's regime waited outside the military intelligence services, hoping for news.

“We need answers,” said Sanjida Islam Tulee, coordinator of “Mayer Daak,” or “Mothers' Call,” which campaigns for the release of people detained by Hasina's security forces.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Tokyo, Japan, May 28, 2014 © AFP – YOSHIKAZU TSUNO

Ms Hasina landed at a military base near New Delhi, according to Indian media, but a senior source said she was only “transiting” through the country before heading to London.

But the British government's call for a UN investigation into “unprecedented levels of violence” has cast doubt on the destination.

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