Nobel Laureate Muhamad Yunas is to take on the responsibility of leading Bangladesh as it transitions to a new election following the overthrow of the government by a populist uprising. Unlike previous coups, this coup seems to have occurred organically among rank and file Bangladeshis.
Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, is quoted by Al Jazeera as saying “Very few expected the situation to turn the way it had. Bangladesh has had many coups, but this is new – this people power, the sheer power of the demonstrators. Now we’re in uncharted territory. This level of political turmoil will have economic ramifications.”
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Excerpt from www.aljazeera.com
Bangladesh economy under pressure amid ‘uncharted’ political turmoil
The student protests that have rocked Bangladesh since July 1 and led Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee in the middle of the night in a helicopter to New Delhi have battered the domestic economy, with losses estimated at billions of dollars.
Now, even as Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus prepares to guide an interim government in Dhaka, businesses are struggling with the unprecedented nature of recent events and what comes next.
“Very few expected the situation to turn the way it had,” Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, told Al Jazeera, referring to the dozens killed and injured earlier this week and Hasina’s departure.
“Bangladesh has had many coups, but this is new – this people power, the sheer power of the demonstrators. Now we’re in uncharted territory.”
This level of political turmoil will have economic ramifications, Nadjibulla said.
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Excerpt from www.cbc.ca
Bangladesh’s next leader Muhammad Yunus arrives home ahead of swearing-in
Bangladesh’s next leader Muhammad Yunus arrived home Thursday from an overseas trip and will take office later in the day, as he looks to restore calm and rebuild the country following an uprising that ended the 15-year, increasingly autocratic rule of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Yunus landed at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Thursday afternoon and was welcomed by the country’s military chief, Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, who was flanked by navy and air force heads.
Some of the student leaders who led the uprising against Hasina were also present at the airport to welcome him. They had earlier proposed Yunus as interim leader to the country’s figurehead president, who is currently acting as the chief executive under the constitution.
In his first comments after his arrival, he told a news briefing that his priority would be to restore order.
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Excerpt from www.ctvnews.ca
Bangladesh protests: Interim leader Muhammad Yunus takes helm ahead of elections
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took the oath of office as head of Bangladesh’s interim government Thursday after an uprising prompted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down and flee to India.
The key tasks for Yunus now are restoring peace in Bangladesh and preparing for new elections following weeks of violence in which student activists led an uprising against what was considered Hasina’s increasingly autocratic 15-year rule.
Bangladesh’s figurehead President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath to Yunus for his role as chief advisor, which is the equivalent to a prime minister, in presence of foreign diplomats, civil society members, top businessmen and members of the former opposition party at the presidential palace in Dhaka. No representatives of Hasina’s party were present.\
Sixteen other people have been included in the interim Cabinet with members drawn mainly from civil society and including two of the student protest leaders. The Cabinet members were chosen in discussions this week among student leaders, civil society representatives and the military.
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Excerpt from www.yahoo.com
Bangladeshi president to dissolve parliament, ex-prime minister freed
Just hours after the Bangladeshi prime minister resigned and fled the country on Monday, the country’s president said he would dissolve parliament and form an interim administration.
The announcement from Mohammed Shahabuddin, in a televised address to the nation, came at the end of a tumultuous day in which former prime minister Sheikh Hasina quit and fled to India.
Weeks of violent student protests led to the toppling of Hasina’s government on Monday, marking the end to her 15-year tenure. Around 300 people have been killed in the demonstrations.
Shahabuddin’s decision came after a meeting on Monday night with opposition political leaders, who decided to release former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who was jailed in a 2018 graft case. The meeting also decided to free all prisoners detained during the anti-discrimination student movement.
Zaynal Abedin, the president’s press officer, told state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency that the meeting, attended by leaders from various opposition political parties, unanimously decided to release Zia.
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Excerpt from news.google.com
Bangladesh president dissolves parliament, frees former PM Zia
Bangladesh’s president dissolved parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for an interim government and new elections, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled following a violent crackdown on a student-led uprising.President Mohammed Shahabuddin’s office also announced that the leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister who had feuded with Hasina for decades, had been freed from house arrest.
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Excerpt from news.google.com
Bangladesh prime minister reportedly flees nation as anti-government protesters storm her residence
The prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and fled to neighboring India on Monday after protesters stormed her official residence after weeks of deadly anti-government demonstrations in the South Asian nation.
Scenes of jubilation erupted on the streets as protesters celebrated the end of her 15 years in power by climbing on tanks and scaling an imposing statue of Hasina’s father, independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in Dhaka, attacking the head with an ax.
In a national address, Bangladesh’s army chief, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman confirmed Hasina had resigned and said the military would form an interim government.
Addressing protesters, largely young Bangladeshis and students, he said: “Whatever demands you have we will fulfil and bring back peace to the nation, please help us in this, stay away from violence.”
“The military will not fire at anyone, the police will not fire at anyone, I have given orders,” he added.
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Excerpt from www.news24.com
Statues smashed, ‘mob rule’ after Bangladesh government falls in bloody revolution
Bangladeshi mobs torching TV stations, protesters lounging in beds in the premier’s home and bloody corpses: eyewitness described chaotic scenes after the country’s prime minister was ousted Monday and the military took power.
For some, the end of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year-rule was something to celebrate, as they waved flags from the rooftop of her home after she fled the country by helicopter.
“I can’t express my feelings in words, I’m so happy,” Mohammad Bashir, 35, one of the millions of Bangladeshis who flooded the streets after the army chief declared he was forming a caretaker government.
“Now my only wish is to take care of all the families of the killed people and students, and to deliver justice.”
Messages flooded social media with people greeting each other on Facebook by saying; “Happy Independence Day.”
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Excerpt from time.com
Bangladesh Protests Become “People’s Uprising” Against Government
Spiraling clashes between police and anti-government protesters in Bangladesh resulted in at least 90 deaths on Sunday, as initially peaceful student demonstrations morphed into a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience aimed at unseating autocratic Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Despite the government once again cutting mobile internet nationwide, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the street over the weekend with calls to march on the Ganabhaban, the prime minister’s official residence in the capital Dhaka, on Monday afternoon. In response, police set up roadblocks at major arteries into the city, but students say thousands have already slipped past the security cordon in order to join the demonstrations. “The time has come for the final protest,” said Asif Mahmud, a protest leader, per AFP.
Hasina has so far been characteristically defiant. Speaking following a meeting with security chiefs, she said demonstrators were “not students but terrorists who are out to destabilize the nation.” Still, such is the scale and breadth of public anger that analysts doubt whether her ruling Awami League party—which was returned for a fourth straight term in January elections boycotted by the opposition and denounced by observers as neither free nor fair—could possibly stay in power.
“Survival of the government is highly unlikely,” says Ali Riaz, a Bangladeshi-American political scientist and professor at Illinois State University. “I don’t think that people will go back without seeing a transition.”
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Excerpt from news.google.com
Bangladesh’s interim government should be formed following democratic principles: U.S
The Biden Administration has said an interim government in Bangladesh, which has descended into chaos after the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina amid violent anti-quota protests, should be formed according to democratic principles, rule of law and the will of the Bangladeshi people.
“We want to see the Bangladeshi people decide the future of the Bangladeshi government,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference.
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Excerpt from www.cbc.ca
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina resigns, flees country after weeks of deadly protests
Bangladesh’s prime minister resigned and fled the country on Monday, after weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs descended into violence and grew into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule.
Thousands of demonstrators stormed her official residence and other buildings associated with her party and family.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s departure threatens to create even more instability in the nation on India’s border already dealing with a series of crises, from high unemployment and corruption to climate change. Amid security concerns, the capital’s main airport suspended operations.
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