In Bangladesh, Nobel laureate Yunus' caretaker government expected to be sworn in on Thursday

Photo: Michel Euler Associated Press Muhammad Yunus spoke briefly with the media before flying home Wednesday from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Shafiqul Alam – Agence France-Presse in Dhaka

Published at 11:00 Updated at 1:04 p.m.

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Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus said Wednesday, as he left Paris, that he was “looking forward” to taking the reins of an interim government in Bangladesh that is expected to be sworn in on Thursday with the mission of leading “a democratic process” toward rapid elections.

This government led by the 84-year-old economist, set up after violence that left more than 400 dead and the flight of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is expected to be sworn in on Thursday “around 8 p.m.,” local time, during a ceremony “presumably attended by about a hundred people,” announced the army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman.

The officer said he was “certain” in a televised address to the nation that Muhammad Yunus would be “capable of leading a beautiful democratic process” in favor of the population.

The Nobel Prize winner, who launched “a vibrant appeal for calm” to his compatriots, took off from Paris for Dubai, where he will stop before arriving in Bangladesh.

“I ask you to refrain from any form of violence” and “be ready to build the country,” he said in a statement.

He promised Wednesday in the British magazine The Economist that he would do everything to ensure that “free and fair elections are organized in the coming months,” but that young people must “not are not obsessed with settling scores, as too many of our previous governments have been.”

Tarique Rahman, the interim president of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition to Sheikh Hasina, also called for elections “as soon as possible,” in a video address from his London exile to a huge crowd in the capital Dhaka.

In a timely move, Muhammad Yunus’s return to his homeland was facilitated by his acquittal on Wednesday in an appeals trial for labor violations. His first-instance conviction in January, the only one handed down in more than 100 criminal cases against him, was seen as political by his defenders. He had then left the country.

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Police chief apologizes

The decision to “form an interim government […] with Yunus as its leader” was taken during a meeting between President Mohammed Shahabuddin, senior army officials and leaders of the Students Against Discrimination group, the main movement behind the protests that began in early July, the Bangladeshi presidency announced on Wednesday.

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The economist, known for lifting millions out of poverty through his pioneering microfinance bank, had drawn the ire of Ms Hasina, who accused him of “sucking the blood” of the poor.

President Shahabuddin dissolved parliament on Tuesday, as student protesters and the BNP had demanded.

On Monday, he ordered the release of those arrested during the protests and political prisoners. Including Michael Chakma, an activist defending ethnic minorities who has been in a secret prison since 2019, his party, the United People's Democratic Front, assured on Wednesday.

In another sign of appeasement, the new police chief, Mainul Islam, promised on Wednesday an “impartial” investigation into the deadly protests and apologized for the conduct of previous officials.

The previous national police chief was dismissed by President Shahabuddin and the military has made several changes to its top brass, including demoting some considered close to Hasina.

Mainul Islam said it had asked police units to end their strike and resume operations on Thursday when the caretaker government takes office.

Police unions had said their members were on strike on Tuesday “until the security” of officers is assured.

Police reported attacks on perceived allies of the ousted prime minister, as well as on police stations and officers.

Rebuilding democracy

Monday was the deadliest day since the protests began, with at least 122 people killed, while at least 10 people were killed on Tuesday, bringing the total to at least 432, according to an AFP tally based on police, government and medical sources.

Millions of Bangladeshis took to the streets of Dhaka on Monday, storming parliament, torching pro-government television stations and smashing statues of the ousted prime minister’s father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Offices of Hasina’s Awami League party have been torched and looted across the country. Shops and homes owned by Hindus — a group considered by some to be close to Ms Hasina — were also attacked, witnesses said.

Neighbouring India, the United States and the European Union have expressed concern over reports of attacks on minorities.

The protests began in early July after the reintroduction of a system reserving nearly a third of civil service jobs for descendants of war veterans. The Hasina government has been accused by human rights groups of using institutions to entrench its grip and stamp out dissent.

Sheikh Hasina, 76, returned to power in 2009 and won a fifth term in January in an election without any real opposition. She was eventually disavowed by the military and fled by helicopter to an undisclosed location on Monday, after “transiting” through New Delhi, according to a senior Indian official.

Former prime minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia, 78, was released on Tuesday, according to her party. A major rival to Hasina, the BNP leader was sentenced to 17 years in prison for corruption in 2018.

For Thomas Kean of the International Crisis Group think tank, the new authorities face a formidable challenge, that of “rebuilding democracy in Bangladesh, which has been badly damaged in recent years.”