Bangladesh’s Nobel Prize-winning microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus will lead an interim administration after large protests forced longstanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to quit, the presidency announced on Wednesday.
The appointment came quickly after student leaders urged the 84-year-old Yunus, who is credited for bringing millions out of poverty in the South Asian country, to take the helm.
The decision was taken during a meeting with President Mohammed Shahabuddin, the commanders of the army, navy, and air force, and student leaders.
“(They) decided to form an interim government with Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus as its chief,” Shahabuddin’s office said in a statement.
“The president has asked the people to help ride out the crisis. Quick formation of an interim government is necessary to overcome the crisis.”
Yunus will have the title of chief advisor, according to Haid Islam, one of the leaders of Students Against Discrimination who participated in the meeting.
Shahabuddin agreed that the interim government “will be formed within the shortest time” possible, Islam told reporters.
Islam described the meeting as “fruitful”.
However, there were few other details about the planned government, including the role of the military.
Yunus, who is currently in Europe, told AFP on Tuesday he was willing to lead the interim government.
“If action is needed in Bangladesh, for my country and for the courage of my people, then I will take it,” he said in a statement, also calling for free elections.
Deadly crackdown
Hasina, 76, who had been in office since 2009, resigned on Monday after hundreds of thousands of protesters stormed Dhaka’s streets demanding she step down.
Monday’s events marked the end of more than a month of unrest, which began with rallies over a plan for quotas in government employment but evolved into an anti-Hasina campaign.
Hasina, who was accused of manipulating the January elections and committing widespread human rights violations, deployed security troops to quell the rallies.
Hundreds of people were killed during the crackdown, but the military turned on Hasina over the weekend, forcing her to flee to nearby India via helicopter.
On Sunday, Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman stated that it was “time to stop the violence”.
Aside from Yunus’ appointment, the military has since agreed to a number of other demands made by student groups.
The president dissolved parliament on Tuesday, fulfilling another demand of student leaders and the main opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP).
The head of the police force, whom demonstrators blamed for leading Hasina’s crackdown, was fired on Tuesday, according to a statement from the president’s office appointing Yunus as leader.
Khaleda Zia, 78, the former prime minister and head of the BNP, was also released from years of house detention, according to a presidential announcement and her party.
The military reshuffled several generals, demoting some viewed as loyal to Hasina and dismissing Ziaul Ahsan, commander of the notorious Rapid Action Battalion paramilitary group.
Free from ‘dictatorship’
The streets of the city were mainly tranquil Tuesday, with shops reopening and international flights resumed at Dhaka airport, while government offices remained mostly closed.
Following Hasina’s departure, millions of Bangladeshis took to the streets to rejoice, and joyous mobs assaulted and looted her official mansion.
“We have been freed from a dictatorship,” said 21-year-old Sazid Ahnaf, comparing the events to the country’s independence battle from Pakistan over five decades ago.
According to police, crowds have conducted vengeance attacks on Hasina’s allies and their own policemen, as well as freed more than 500 inmates from prison.
Monday was the worst day since protests began in early July, with 10 more people murdered Tuesday, bringing the total death toll to at least 432, according to an AFP tally based on police, government authorities, and hospital physicians.
Protesters broke into parliament and set fire to television stations. Others shattered statues of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s independence hero.
Some Hindu businesses and houses, which some in the Muslim-majority country regard as linked to Hasina, were also targeted.
Bangladeshi rights groups, as well as officials from the United States and the European Union, have raised worry over reports of attacks on religious, ethnic, and other minority groups.
Bangladesh’s biggest regional allies, India and China, have called for calm.