Newsman: Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country on Monday, as anti-government protesters marched on the capital to demand her resignation. Thousands of demonstrators stormed her official residence, a day after nearly 100 died in the unrest.
The army chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned ,a day after nearly 100 people were killed in clashes with the police as student-led protesters demanded she step down.
The country’s military chief, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman in an address to the nation Hours after the embattled leader was seen on TV boarding a military helicopter with her sister.
The military chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman said, an interim government would be formed and that every death would be investigated. He implored the public to cooperate and ensure peace.
Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, said he would seek the president’s guidance on forming an interim government.
“Keep faith in the military, we will investigate all the killings and punish the responsible,” he said. “I have ordered that no army and police will indulge in any kind of firing.”
“We will not achieve anything else through fighting and violence,” he said. “I urge you all to stop all conflicts and destruction” he said.
Army Chief promised that the military would launch an investigation into the deadly crackdown on student-led protests that fueled outrage against the government.
He met opposition politicians, including the head of the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami party, and civil society members before making his statement. “there had been a good discussion at a meeting with all political parties except for Hasina’s Awami League, which was not represented,” Gen.Zaman said.
Sheikh Hasina’s resignation was met with jubilance by people gathered on the streets, some of whom gave flowers to soldiers after they opened the roads.
Sheikh Hasina arrived Monday in a city in India on the border with Bangladesh in an army helicopter, according in international media quoting to a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information to the media. It was not clear where she would go next.
A Bangladesh Air Force aircraft with Sheikh Hasina on board which landed at the base in Ghaziabad, India Today news channel reported.
Local media in India reports that an aircraft carrying the former prime minister of Bangladesh has landed at Hindon Air Base near New Delhi.
As she fled, people stormed her residence, taking furniture and pulling food from the refrigerators.
While the protests began peacefully, they evolved into fury against Hasina as the government responded with what critics said was excessive force. More than 300 people had died and thousands of others were injured before the violence on Sunday, when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as protesters set cars and buildings ablaze and clashed with groups they said were associated with the government.
Sheikh Hasina stepped down after a day after dozens of people dead following weeks of deadly protests that left couple of hundreds dead in violence., after weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs descended into violence where at least 300 people have been killed in recent weeks amid a mass movement against what critics
The unrest has also resulted in the closure of schools and universities across the country, and authorities at one point imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew.
Authorities also shut off mobile internet on Sunday in an attempt to control the unrest, and broadband internet was cut briefly Monday morning. It was the second internet blackout in the country since July, but services were restored later Monday.
Protests have continued even after the Supreme Court last month ruled that the quota system — which set aside up to 30% of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan — must be drastically cut. The government attempted to control the demonstrations with force, leaving nearly 300 people dead since mid-July.
Sheikh Hasina offered to talk with student leaders on Saturday, but a coordinator refused and demanded her resignation.She repeated her pledges to investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. She said she was ready to sit down whenever the protesters want. Earlier, she had said protesters who engaged in “sabotage” and destruction were no longer students but criminals, and that the people should deal with them with an iron hand.
At least 95 people, including at least 14 police officers, died in clashes in the capital on Sunday, according to the country’s leading Bengali-language daily newspaper, Prothom Alo. Hundreds more were injured. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks
Over the weekend, protesters called for a “non-cooperation” effort, urging people not to pay taxes or utility bills and not to show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities struggled to get to their jobs since much public transport was halted amid fears of violence. Sheikh Hasina 76 was the longest-serving female head of government — was elected for a fourth consecutive term in a January votes that was boycotted by her main opponents.
