Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flees, interim government is about to be formed | Real Time Headlines

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday and fled the country after hundreds of people were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations.

The jubilant crowd stormed the splendid grounds of the presidential residence without resistance and snatched away looted furniture and televisions. A man holds a red velvet, gilt-edged chair over his head. The other held an armful of vases.

Elsewhere in Dhaka, protesters climbed onto the statue of Hasina’s father, the country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and began carving open the head with axes.

The exile ended Hasina’s 15-year second term in power. Some members of the family were assassinated together.

Hasina left the country for her own safety at the insistence of her family, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy told BBC World Service.

Joy said Hasina was “very disappointed that after all her hard work, a few people rose up against her”. He said she would not try to make a political comeback.

Earlier, army chief General Wak-uz-Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised speech to the nation and said an interim government would be formed.

He said he had held talks with leaders of major political parties – excluding Hasina’s long-ruling Awami League – and would meet President Mohammad Shahabuddin soon to discuss the way forward.

“This country is going through a revolutionary period,” said Zaman, 58, who took over as army chief on June 23.

“I assure you all that we will seek justice for all murders and injustices. We ask you to have faith in the country’s armed forces,” he said. “Please do not return to the path of violence, please return to the path of non-violence and peace.”

The military spokesman’s office said the curfew will be in place from midnight Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday, after which all schools, factories, colleges and universities will be open.

Hasina’s government imposed an indefinite curfew from Sunday night and a three-day public holiday from Monday.

Hasina, 76, landed at the Hindon military airport near Delhi, 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, which has close cultural and trade ties with Bangladesh, has made no official comment on the incident in Dhaka.

Indian broadcaster Times Now quoted sources as saying Hasina will leave Hinton for London at 1930 GMT. Reuters could not immediately verify the information.

Bangladesh has been engulfed in violence since students protested against quotas last month.

The protests escalated into a movement calling for Hasina’s overthrow and were violently suppressed, leaving about 250 people dead and thousands injured.

The country, once one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, has recently been plagued by slow growth, inflation and unemployment.

Hasina’s son Joy defended her record: “She turned Bangladesh around. When she came to power, it was considered a failed state. It was a poor country. To this day, it is It is considered to be one of the four rising tigers in Asia.

She won a fourth consecutive term in January in an election boycotted by the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of her arch-nemesis Mrs Khaleda Zia.

Zia, 78, who twice served as prime minister, has been in jail since February 2018 after being convicted in a corruption case.

President Shahabuddin has ordered Zia’s release, AFP reported. But a BNP Paribas spokesman told Reuters she was receiving treatment in hospital and “will be legally cleared of all charges and discharged soon.”

Hasina has been in power since 2009, when she won a decades-long power struggle with Zia. The political movement was inherited there; Hasina inherited the political movement from her father Mujib. In Zia’s case, power came from her husband Ziaur Rahman, who came to power after Mujib’s death and was assassinated in 1981.

“Hasina’s resignation is a testament to the power of the people,” said Tariq Rahman, the Zia couple’s exiled eldest son and current acting opposition leader.

“Together, let us rebuild Bangladesh as a democratic and developed country where the rights and freedoms of all are protected,” he posted on X.

The United States urges the process of forming the interim government to be democratic and inclusive, and encourages all parties to avoid further violence and restore peace as soon as possible.

Sabrina Karim, an associate professor of government at Cornell University who specializes in political violence, said the interim government should ensure the rule of law during the democratic transition and the absence of retaliatory killings and destruction.

“There may be some optimism about a democratic transition even if the military is involved in the process,” Karim said, adding that Dhaka is one of the largest troop contributors to U.N. peacekeeping operations and cannot risk its reputation.

Clashes across the country on Sunday left nearly 100 people dead, and student activists called on Monday to defy a nationwide curfew and march on the capital, Dhaka, to force Hasina to resign.

At least 56 people were killed in violence across the country on Monday, AFP reported. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Sunday’s death toll, which included at least 13 police officers, was the highest single-day death toll during protests in Bangladesh’s modern history, surpassing the 67 deaths reported on July 19 when students took to the streets to protest against quotas.

Last month, at least 150 people were killed and thousands injured in violence triggered by student groups protesting against employment quotas.

Attacks, vandalism and arson were reported over the weekend at government buildings, offices of Hasina’s Awami League party, police stations and the House of Public Representatives.

The country’s clothing factories, which supply clothing to some of the world’s top brands, have been shut down indefinitely.

Hasina’s critics and rights groups have accused her government of using excessive force against protesters, a charge she and her ministers deny.

Hasina has said that “those who commit violence are not students, but terrorists who seek to destabilize the country.”