Bangladesh’s student leaders who were protesting demanded on Tuesday that the parliament be dissolved. They also warned of implementing a “strict program” if their deadline was not met. This demand came a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled following a violent uprising. Nahid Islam, a key organizer of the movement against Hasina, along with two other student leaders, made the demand in a video on Facebook. Reuters reported that they called for the dissolution of parliament by 3 p.m. on Tuesday and urged “revolutionary students to be ready” if their demand was not met.
Bangladesh’s Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman was due to meet student leaders at 0600 GMT to discuss the formation of an interim government that is expected to hold elections soon after it takes over. It was not immediately clear if the meeting had taken place and if the students’ deadline to dissolve parliament came after the meeting.
Zaman had announced Hasina’s resignation on Monday that followed days of protests led by students since last month against quotas in government jobs that morphed into a broad campaign seeking Hasina’s ouster.
About 300 people were killed and thousands injured in clashes that ripped through the country, some of the worst violence in Bangladesh since its 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
Earlier on Tuesday, some normalcy returned to the capital Dhaka, although traffic was lighter than usual and few schools reopened with thin attendance after closing down in mid-July after the protests.
The student leaders said they want Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government and a spokesperson for Yunus said he has agreed to their demand.
“Any government other than the one we recommended would not be accepted,” Islam had said in a video message earlier, adding, “We wouldn’t accept any army-supported or army-led government.”
Yunus, 84, and his Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace prize for work to lift millions out of poverty by granting tiny loans of under $100 to the rural poor of Bangladesh but he was indicted by a court in June on charges of embezzlement that he denied.
Hasina arrived at a military airfield at Hindon near Delhi on Monday after departing from Dhaka. India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met her there. However, Indian officials did not provide further details about her visit or plans. India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar addressed a closed-door all-party meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss the crisis in Bangladesh. He also read out a statement in Parliament later in the day.
Team BharatShakti (With Reuters inputs)
