Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina Flees The Country After Weeks Of Protests
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled to India following weeks of deadly demonstrations against her government.
Hasina’s resignation on Monday after close to decades in power followed weeks of deadly protests and appears to have averted the threat of further bloodshed in the Asian country.
In an address to the nation, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced that an interim government will now run Bangladesh and called for calm.
Hasina’s aide told Al Jazeera that she boarded a military helicopter on Monday as huge crowds ignored a national curfew to storm her palace in Dhaka.
An aircraft carrying Hasina landed at Hindon Air Base near New Delhi. She was on board a Bangladesh Air Force aircraft which landed at the base in Ghaziabad.
Her resignation came after nearly 300 people died in weeks of protest that the authorities sought to crush. A night of deadly violence on Sunday killed close to 100 and a curfew was called.
As reported by Al Jazeera, on Monday, huge crowds stormed the prime minister’s palace, preventing Hasina from delivering a speech.
At least 20 more people were killed during violence in Dhaka as protesters stormed buildings.
By early afternoon, the mood on the streets had turned to one of celebration after the news of the premier’s departure spread.
Bangladesh suffered many years of military rule in the 1970s and 80s following the war that secured its independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman tried to reassure the nation and urged citizens to keep their trust in the army. He said:
We will also ensure that justice is served for every death and crime that occurred during the protests.
We have invited representatives from all major political parties, and they have accepted our invitation and committed to collaborating with us.
Protests in Bangladesh started a month ago over a controversial government job quota scheme.
The government responded by shutting down universities and using the police and military to crack down on protesters.
Hasina imposed a nationwide curfew and cut off access to phones and the internet but the protests continued.
The country’s top court ruled that the highly contested quotas should be scaled back from 30 per cent to 5 per cent, with 3 per cent for relatives of veterans but the protests continued.
More: Pindula News
