Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will head an interim government in Bangladesh after prime minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country amid a mass uprising against her rule led mostly by students.
The announcement came from Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.
Mr Abedin also said other members of the Yunus-led government would be decided upon soon after discussion with political parties and other stakeholders.
The leaders of the student protests, the chiefs of the country’s three divisions of the military and civil society members, as well as some business leaders, held a meeting with the president for more than five hours late on Tuesday to decide on the head of the interim administration.
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The students had earlier proposed Mr Yunus and said he agreed. He is expected to return to the country from Paris soon, local media reported.
[ The Irish Times view on upheaval in Bangladesh: choosing the way forwardOpens in new window ]
Ms Hasina, who governed the country for two decades in total over two periods in power, was ousted with startling speed on Monday after weeks of violent protests over an unpopular job quota scheme swelled into a youth-led movement that demanded she step down.
The Dhaka Tribune reported that at least 135 people died on Monday as thousands of protesters demanding Ms Hasina quit marched on her residence and took control of the streets of Dhaka, the capital.
Army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman had said the military would hold talks with Mr Shahabuddin and political party representatives on forming a new government.
Mr Shahabuddin ordered the release of jailed ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia and student protesters.
“We have decided that an interim government will be formed in which internationally renowned Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who has wide acceptability, will be the chief adviser,” Nahid Islam, an organiser of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, said in a video statement early on Tuesday.
“We have spoken to Dr Muhammad Yunus and, at the call of the students and to protect Bangladesh, Dr Muhammad Yunus has decided to take on the responsibility.”
An official from Dr Yunus’s office confirmed that he had accepted the students’ request.
Dr Yunus (84), who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, is the founder of pioneering microlender Grameen Bank and one of the south Asian country’s most prominent figures.
He has faced multiple court cases as part of what his supporters described as a politically motivated vendetta by Ms Hasina, who saw him as a potential rival.
On Monday, India’s government confirmed that Ms Hasina had arrived in Delhi. ”At very short notice, she requested approval to come for the moment to India,” S Jaishankar, India’s external affairs minister, told parliament. “We simultaneously received a request for flight clearance from the Bangladesh authorities. She arrived yesterday evening in Delhi.”
According to some reports, Ms Hasina plans to seek refuge in the UK, where her niece, Tulip Siddiq, is an MP with the ruling Labour Party and serves as economic secretary to the treasury.
However, British officials played down the prospect of Ms Hasina being welcomed in the UK, noting there was no provision in the country’s immigration rules allowing somebody – even a fleeing prime minister – to travel to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge. Britain’s policy is to urge anyone seeking international protection to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach as the fastest route to safety, said the officials, who requested anonymity.
Ms Hasina, who claimed a fifth term in power this year after a disputed election, had ruled with an increasingly authoritarian hand.
On Monday, as news of her flight spread, protesters attacked and looted her former residence and other buildings, news footage showed, in scenes that recalled the 2022 uprising in Sri Lanka that overthrew Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president. People also attacked statues of Ms Hasina’s father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the subject of a personality cult promoted by the prime minister and her Awami League party.
The protest movement was sparked by a quota system reserving coveted civil service jobs for specific groups, including descendants of veterans who served in the country’s 1971 civil war in which it split from Pakistan. About 300 people were killed in a crackdown on the demonstrations in the weeks before Ms Hasina’s resignation. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024. Additional reporting: AP