Student leader Nahid Islam wants Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammed Yunus to lead interim government

In the wake of the military takeover of the country and the Prime Minister’s flight abroad, the student leader of the main movement behind the protests in Bangladesh on Tuesday, August 6, mentioned the name of Muhammad Yunnus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, as a possible head of the interim government. For Nahid Islam, the economist “enjoys international renown and is widely recognized”.

At 84, Muhammad Yunus is known for lifting millions out of poverty through his pioneering microfinance bank. But he has drawn the lingering enmity of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of “suck blood” of the poor. According to his close collaborators, the economist had in any case not received an offer from the army to lead the interim government which is to be formed after the flight of the head of government.

Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, who is scheduled to meet student movement leaders on Tuesday who denounces the favors that those close to the government benefit from to become civil servantsannounced on Monday the imminent formation of an interim government. “I give you my word that all injustices will be repaired,” he said in a televised address. Very quickly, the head of the UN and the Western powers called for a “democratic transition” in this South Asian country of 170 million inhabitants, an economic partner of the major powers, particularly in the textile industry.