Most important points
- Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled the country.
- The country’s military chief has said an interim government will be formed soon.
- Hasina’s resignation follows weeks of violent protests in the country.
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled the country after hundreds of people were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations that began as protests against labor quotas and grew into a movement that demanded her downfall.
A jubilant crowd stormed the lavish grounds of the presidential residence without resistance, carrying away looted furniture and televisions.
A man balanced a red velvet chair with gold trim on his head.
Another held an armful of vases.
Elsewhere in Dhaka, protesters climbed onto a statue of Hasina’s father, the state’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and began chopping off the man’s head with an axe.
The flight into exile marked the end of a 15-year second reign for Hasina, who had ruled for 20 of the last 30 years as the leader of the political movement she inherited from her father, who was killed along with most of his family in a coup in 1975.
Hasina had left the country for her own safety at the insistence of her family, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy told BBC World Service.
Hasina was “so disappointed that after all her hard work, a minority turned against her,” Joy said.
He said she would not attempt a political comeback.
‘A revolutionary period’
Earlier, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman had announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised address and said an interim government would be formed.
He said he had held talks with leaders of major political parties, except Hasina’s Awami League, which has been in power for long, and would soon meet President Mohammed Shahabuddin to discuss the way forward.
“The country is going through a revolutionary period,” said Zaman, 58, who only took office as army chief on June 23.
“I promise you all that we will bring justice for all killings and injustice. We ask you to have faith in the country’s military,” he said.
“Please do not return to the path of violence and return to a life without violence and with peace.”
Police use tear gas to disperse protesting students. Source: AFP / AFP
According to Indian news agency ANI, Hasina, 76, landed at a military airport near Delhi.
Reuters could not verify this, but commercial tracking services showed that a Bangladesh air force plane had left the country and flown west before becoming untracked near Delhi.
ANI, citing sources, reported that India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and senior military officers met Hasina at the airport and she was shifted to a secure location.
Bangladesh has been wracked by violence since student protests last month against quotas, which reserve a number of public sector jobs for veterans of Pakistan’s 1971 war of independence and are seen as favouring allies of the ruling party.
The protests escalated into a campaign demanding Hasina’s overthrow, which was met with violence, killing about 250 people and injuring thousands.
The country, once one of the fastest growing economies in the world, has recently been plagued by sluggish economic growth, inflation and unemployment.
Bangladeshi students protested on August 3, calling for a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience. Source: SIPA VS / Zabed Hasnain Chowdhury / SOPA Images
Hasina’s son Joy defended her record: “She has turned Bangladesh around. When she took over, it was seen as a failed state. It was a poor country. To this day, it is seen as one of the rising tigers of Asia.”
She only won her fourth consecutive term in January this year, after elections were boycotted by the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of her arch-enemy Begum Khaleda Zia.
Hasina has been in power since winning a decades-long power struggle with Zia in 2009.
Both women inherited political movements from assassinated rulers. In Hasina’s case, from her father Mujib; in Zia’s case, from her husband Ziaur Rahman, who came to power after Mujib’s death and was himself assassinated in 1981.
“Hasina’s resignation proves the strength of the people,” said Tarique Rahman, the exiled eldest son of the two Zias, who is now acting chairman of the opposition party.
“Let us together rebuild Bangladesh into a democratic and developed country where the rights and freedoms of all people are protected,” he posted on X.
Student activists had called for a march on the capital Dhaka on Monday to defy a curfew and force Hasina to step down after nearly 100 people were killed in clashes across the country on Sunday.
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