Nobel Laureate Yunus Arrives in Bangladesh to Form Government

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has arrived Thursday in Bangladesh to take the head of an interim government which will have to lead "a democratic process" towards elections, after the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“Bangladesh has created a new day of victory. Bangladesh has a second independence,” the 84-year-old economist told the press and his supporters, shortly after landing in the capital Dhaka, evoking a “glorious day”.

This return of the old pet peeve of Ms. Hasina, forced into exile after a criminal conviction at the beginning of the year , comes after violence which left more than 400 dead and the flight of the deposed leader on Monday.

Mr Yunus said upon his arrival that his priority would be to restore “law and order”. “If you trust me, make sure there is no attack on anyone, anywhere in the country,” he insisted.

The economist, distinguished for his role as a pioneer in microfinance, is to take the oath “around 8:00 p.m.” (2:00 p.m. GMT), announced the army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman.

The officer said he was “certain” in a televised speech that Mr. Yunus would be “capable of leading a beautiful democratic process.”

The Nobel Prize winner, who launched “a vibrant appeal for calm” to his compatriots, landed as planned shortly after 2:00 p.m. (8:00 a.m. GMT) in Dhaka, after leaving on Wednesday from Paris.

“I ask you to refrain from all forms of violence” and to be “ready to build the country,” he said in a statement before his return.

– “Settling scores” –

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

Demonstration by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition movement to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on August 7, 2024 in Dhaka © AFP – –

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

Mr Yunus's return was helped by his acquittal on Wednesday in an appeals trial on charges of labour violations. His six-month prison sentence in January, the only one handed down in more than 100 cases against him, was seen as political by his defenders. That was when he left the country.

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The decision to call on Mr Yunus to lead the interim government was taken at a meeting between President Mohammed Shahabuddin, army officials and the Students Against Discrimination group, the main movement behind the protests that began in early July, the presidency said on Wednesday.

A student controls traffic on a street in Dhaka during a police strike on August 7, 2024 © AFP – MUNIR UZ ZAMAN

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

President Shahabuddin dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, as demanded by protesting students and the BNP, after ordering the release of those arrested during the demonstrations and political prisoners.

– Police and army reshuffled –

In another sign of appeasement, the new police chief Mainul Islam promised on Wednesday an “impartial” investigation into the demonstrations and apologized for the conduct of his predecessors, dismissed by the president.

He asked the police officers, on strike since Tuesday to protest against the attacks targeting them, to return to work on Thursday.

The army has also reshuffled his command, in particular by demoting certain senior officers considered close to Ms. Hasina.

At least 432 people were killed during the protest movement, including 122 on Monday, the deadliest day, according to an AFP count based on police, government and medical sources.

A police station vandalized in Dhaka, August 6, 2024 © AFP – Munir Uz Zaman

That day, millions of Bangladeshis took to the streets of Dhaka. Protesters stormed parliament, torched pro-government television stations and tore down statues of the ousted prime minister's father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

– Hindus targeted –

Offices of Hasina's Awami League party have been torched and looted across the country. Shops and homes belonging to Hindus – a group considered by some to be close to the former leader – have also been attacked.

Since then, “several hundred Bangladeshi nationals, mostly Hindus, have gathered at different locations along the border” with India, said Amit Kumar Tyagi, deputy inspector general of India's Border Security Force (BSF).

In India's Jalpaiguri district, more than 600 Bangladeshis have travelled to the border no man's land, Tyagi said. “Since there is no fence here, BSF personnel formed a human shield to keep them at bay,” he told AFP.

The protests began after the reintroduction of a system reserving nearly a third of civil service jobs for descendants of war veterans. Human rights groups accused Hasina's government of trying to harness the institutions to stamp out dissent.

Hasina, 76, was prime minister from 1996 to 2001 before returning to power in 2009. She won a fifth term in January in an unopposed election. Disowned by the army, she fled by helicopter to India on Monday.

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