Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus said Tuesday he was ready to lead a caretaker government in Bangladesh after parliament is dissolved, meeting the demands of students who led the protests that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee.
“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,” Muhammad Yunus said in a written statement to AFP, calling for the organization of “free elections.”
The 84-year-old economist, known for lifting millions out of poverty through his pioneering microfinance bank, had earned the enduring enmity of Mr.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, as did the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is demanding elections within three months.
“We trust the Dr Yunus,” wrote Asif Mahmud, one of the main leaders of the collective, on Facebook. Students Against Discrimination (Students Against Discrimination), the main student movement behind the protests launched in early July against a system of hiring quotas in the administration deemed unfair.
Monday was the deadliest day since the start of the movement, with at least 122 people killed, 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.
The protests finally led to the departure of Sheikh Hasina, 76, on Monday, who was forced to flee by helicopter. She 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” in Bangladesh, however, has cast doubt on that destination.
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 carried out several reshuffles among its senior officers, including demoting some of those considered close to Mr.me Hasina.
Bangladeshi army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman had announced on Monday the imminent formation of an “interim government”.
The situation was calm in the capital, Dhaka, on Tuesday.
Although traffic resumed and shops reopened, government offices remained closed.
After Mr. Waker’s speech on Monday, millions of Bangladeshis poured into the streets of Dhaka. Protesters stormed parliament, torched pro-government television stations and smashed statues of the ousted prime minister’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s independence hero.
The offices of the Awami League, M’s partyme Hasina, were set on fire and looted across the country, witnesses told AFP. Shops and homes owned by Hindus — a group considered by some to be close to Mme Hasina — were also attacked, according to witnesses.
European Union diplomats in Bangladesh said Tuesday they were “very concerned” after reports of attacks on minorities. The US embassy also called for “calm” after “attacks on religious minorities and religious sites.”
India said it was “deeply concerned” by the crisis and said it was monitoring “the situation with regard to the status of minorities”.
“Such attacks on minorities go against the fundamental spirit of the anti-discrimination student movement,” said Iftekharuzzaman, director of Transparency International Bangladesh.
Khaleda Zia released
Returning to power in 2009, Mme 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 Mme Hasina had been accused by human rights organisations of using institutions to consolidate her grip and eradicate all 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 Mme 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.
China said it hopes for an early return of “social stability” to Bangladesh, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.
For Thomas Kean of the think tank (“ think tank ») International Crisis Group, the new authorities face a formidable challenge: “The interim government […] will have to embark on the difficult task of rebuilding democracy in Bangladesh, which has been seriously damaged in recent years.”