Bangladesh waits on army chief for interim government after PM flees

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 Dhaka and schools reopened with thin attendance after closing down in mid-July as the anti-quota protests 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 a movement against job quotas that turned into a call for Hasina to resign, said early on Tuesday that they want a new interim government with Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as its chief adviser.

“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 (NASDAQ:) with three other organisers. “We wouldn’t accept any army-supported or army-led government.”

“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.

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.

India’s foreign minister was due to address an all-party meeting on Tuesday morning about the crisis in Bangladesh, Indian news agency ANI reported.

FRESH ELECTIONS PLANNED

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.

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 the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson and Hasina’s nemesis, Begum Khaleda Zia, who was convicted in a graft case in 2018 but moved to a hospital a year later as her health deteriorated. She has denied the charges against her.

A BNP spokesperson said on Monday that Zia, 78, 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.