The Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh resigned from his post as Prime Minister, the chief of the national army announced on Monday, in an astonishing turn of events while the chief who had held his duties for 15 consecutive years seemed to give the requests of the student demonstrators to resign.
The announcement came while Dacca and other cities have prepared for more violence, as thousands of anti-government demonstrators challenged a curfew and walked despite the strong presence of government troops and police on the street.
“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already resigned and we are working to form an interim government,” said General Waker-Zaman, the military chief, to journalists at a press conference in front of his cantonment office in Dacca.
According to Hasina, late international reports had left Hasina, a report from India saying that she had arrived in the neighboring country by helicopter earlier in the day.
Hasina resigned a day after the Bangladesh was plunged into the only day of violence in recent weeks of political tumult. On Sunday, up to 98 people were killed across the country, while students and demonstrators went down to the streets and launched a civil disobedience campaign to demand that Hasina and her government resign on murders of at least 200 demonstrators during a first phase of demonstrations in July.
“I take any responsibility … Justice [is] To be ensured for each murder and other misconduct, “said the army chief.
General Waker-Uz-Zaman said that he had “ordered the police and the army not to open fire”, at the thousands of people on the street on Monday.
He said the decision to form an interim administration had been taken after discussions with the representatives of the main political parties and civil society, although no member of the Awami League Party of Hasina was present in the meeting.
“During the meeting, BNP representatives [Bangladesh Nationalist Party]Jamaat-E-Islami, Jatiya Party was present when no people of the Awami League attended.
“I will meet the president as soon as possible and I will try to form an interim administration. It could take one or two days … Please cooperate with us,” said the general.
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The demonstrators demanded justice for the 212 people who lost their lives during the anterior wave of civilian troubles last month, when the students organized demonstrations against a system of quotas for government jobs. He was strongly weighted in favor of children and grandchildren of war veterans who had fought for the independence of Bangladesh against Pakistan in 1971.
Following these demonstrations, the Supreme Court’s appeal division reduced quotas for certain groups to 7%, compared to 56%, paving the way for most government -based government jobs in the country with a high unemployment rate among young people.
Hasina, who had held uninterrupted power since 2009, and her government was re -elected in January in national polls that were widely criticized as tainted. In the months preceding the general elections, the BNP opposition had organized massive street demonstrations in 2023 by calling on its government to give way to a neutral guardian administration to manage the country during the elections transition, but it refused to resign.
On the eve of his departure from his duties, the 76 -year -old Prime Minister and the daughter of the founding chief of the country, chaired a meeting of the National Security Council and seemed to order the armed forces and the police to be hard to prevent demonstrators from spreading “anarchy”.
“No one of those who now carry out violence is a student. They are terrorists,” said Hasina, Abm Sarwer-Elam, the Prime Minister’s assistant press secretary, quoted Hasina, according to the Bangladesh Bangladesh (BSS) Information Service.
Benarnews is a media affiliated with the FRG.