Bangladesh | Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus says he is ready to govern

(Dhaka) Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus said Tuesday he was ready to lead a caretaker government in Bangladesh after the dissolution of parliament, a move that would meet the demands of students who led the movement that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee after a bloody crackdown.

“I am touched by the confidence of the protesters who wish me to lead the interim government,” Muhammad Yunus stressed. “I have always kept politics at a distance […] But today, if action is needed in Bangladesh, for my country, and for the courage of my people, then I will do it,” he pledged in a written statement to AFP, while calling for the organization of “free elections.”

The 84-year-old economist is known for lifting millions out of poverty through his pioneering microfinance bank, but he has earned the enduring enmity of M^me Hasina, who had accused him of “sucking the blood” of the poor.

Earlier, a presidential spokesman, Shiplu Zaman, announced in a statement that the president had “dissolved parliament.”

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

“We trust the D^r Yunus,” wrote on Facebook Asif Mahmud, a leading leader of the Students Against Discrimination group, the main student movement behind the protests that began in early July.

Protests against a system of hiring quotas in the administration have left more than 400 dead since the beginning of July across the country.

They finally resulted on Monday in the departure of Sheikh Hasina, 76, forced to flee on board a helicopter. M^me 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. The British government’s call for a UN investigation into “unprecedented levels of violence” has cast doubt on that destination, however.

Police ask for forgiveness

In the troubled country, Bangladesh’s main police union asked for “forgiveness” for shooting students in a statement Tuesday. The union said the officers were “forced to open fire” and then portrayed as the “bad guys.” It also announced a strike to ensure the safety of the officers.

The army has made several changes to its top generals, including demoting some of those considered close to Mr.^me Hasina. Bangladesh Army Chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Monday that an interim government would soon be formed. He promised to redress “all injustices” and lift the curfew on Tuesday.

The president and the army chief met President Mohammed Shahabuddin late Monday, along with key opposition leaders. The president’s press office said it had been “decided to form an interim government immediately.”

The situation was calm in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday, with traffic returning and shops reopening, but government offices remained closed, a day after violence left at least 122 people dead.

After Mr Waker’s speech, millions of Bangladeshis poured into the streets of Dhaka on Monday. Protesters stormed parliament, torched pro-government television stations and smashed statues of Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s father, the country’s independence hero.

The offices of the Awami League, M’s party^me Hasina, were set on fire and looted across the country, witnesses told AFP. Shops and homes owned by Hindus – a group seen by some in the Muslim-majority country as close to M^me Hasina – were also attacked, according to witnesses.

European Union diplomats in Bangladesh said on Tuesday they were “very concerned” after reports of attacks on minority groups.

Monday was the deadliest day since protests began in early July and 10 more people were killed on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to at least 432, according to an AFP tally based on figures from police, government officials and doctors at hospitals.

India ‘deeply concerned’

Returning to power in 2009, M^me Hasina won a fifth term in January in an election without any real opposition.

The protests began in early July after the reintroduction of a scheme reserving nearly a third of public sector jobs for descendants of veterans of the war of independence. The government of M^me Hasina had been accused by human rights organisations of using institutions to consolidate her grip and stamp out dissent.

The head of state ordered the release of those arrested during the demonstrations late on 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 M^me Hasina, the BNP leader, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for corruption in 2018.

Starting Tuesday in Dhaka, the mothers of some of the hundreds of political prisoners secretly imprisoned under Mr.^me Hasina waited outside the military intelligence office, hoping for news.

India said Tuesday it was “deeply concerned” about the crisis in neighboring Bangladesh. China, for its part, said it hoped for an early return to “social stability” in Bangladesh, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement.