Euphoria in Bangladesh after PM flees country

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned after weeks of lethal anti-government protests, placing an finish to her greater than 20 years dominating the nation’s politics.

Ms Hasina, 76, fled the nation, reportedly touchdown in India on Monday.

Jubilant crowds took to the streets to have fun the information, with some storming the prime ministerial palace, reportedly looting and vandalising components of her former residence.

Hours after Ms Hasina’s resignation, President Mohammed Shahabuddin ordered the discharge of jailed former prime minister Khaleda Zia and all college students detained throughout current protests towards a quota system for presidency jobs.

President Shahabuddin stated he had chaired a gathering of military chiefs and political representatives.

He stated an interim authorities can be fashioned, new elections referred to as and a nationwide curfew lifted.

In Dhaka on Monday, police and different authorities buildings have been attacked and set on fireplace. Protesters tried to tear down a statue of independence chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ms Hasina’s father.

Military and police items have been deployed throughout the town. Cell phone service was reportedly reduce off for a number of hours earlier than being restored.

On Monday, protesters have been seen finishing up furnishings from the prime minister’s residence.

Dozens have been reported killed on Monday, though the exact toll remained unclear. The AFP information company reported the toll as 66 lifeless, although native outlet the Dhaka Tribune stated as many as 135 had been killed.

Ms Hasina’s departure leaves a vacuum in Bangladeshi politics, which has lengthy been characterised by a rivalry between her Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Get together.

The nation has skilled a number of navy coups, most lately in 2007.

The US recommended the military for its “restraint” and stated an interim authorities must be fashioned. The EU urged an “orderly and peaceable transition” in direction of a democratically elected authorities.

There was no official response from neighbour and regional energy India.

Debapriya Bhattacharya, a senior economist with the Centre for Coverage Dialogue in Dhaka, advised the BBC that whereas the resignation had been met with “euphoria” within the streets, assaults on the Hindu minority had escalated, posing a right away problem to the brand new authorities.

“There’s a feeling that India utterly backed Sheikh Hasina’s authorities. Protesters make no distinction between India and Hindu residents of Bangladesh, which has already led to assaults on temples and other people.

“Now there’s a energy vacuum, there’s no person to implement legislation and order. The brand new authorities might want to defend non secular minorities.”

Ms Hasina’s allies stated she wouldn’t return to the nation’s politics. The previous prime minister has spent a complete of 20 years in workplace, first coming to energy in 1996.

Her son, Sajeeb Wazed Pleasure, advised the BBC’s Newshour programme: “She’s in her late 70s. She is so disillusioned that in any case her onerous work, for a minority to stand up towards her, I believe she’s carried out.

“My household and I are carried out.”

Critics say Ms Hasina’s rule was characterised by compelled disappearances, extra-judicial killings and the crushing of opposition figures and authorities critics.

However Mr Wazed, who additionally served as a adviser to the prime minister on expertise, defended his mom’s file.

“She has turned Bangladesh round within the final 15 years.

“When she took over energy, it was thought-about a failing state. It was a poor nation.

“Till as we speak, it was thought-about one of many rising tigers of Asia.”

About 300 individuals have been killed since protests broke out a month in the past over a quota system for presidency jobs. The demonstrations, met with harsh repression by authorities forces, developed right into a broader anti-government motion.

Dr Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior analysis fellow on the Chatham Home suppose tank, stated the nation’s excessive unemployment charges had made the quotas, which reserved a 3rd of civil service jobs for descendants of veterans of the nation’s 1971 independence warfare with Pakistan, a very salient political challenge.

“Public sector job quotas – with 400,000 new graduates competing for 3,000 civil service jobs – turned a lightning rod for anti-government unrest,” Dr Bajpaee stated.

He added that the pace of occasions mirrored frustration amongst Bangladeshi youth over the nation’s “one-party rule” over the past 15 years.

“In a rustic with such a vibrant civil society, efforts to curb political freedoms and free speech have been certain to set off a blowback.”

A lot of the quota was scaled again by the federal government following a Supreme Courtroom ruling final month, however college students continued to protest, demanding justice for these killed and injured, and Ms Hasina’ resignation.

Mr Bhattacharya stated protesters now anticipated the brand new authorities to undergo with their calls for, together with democratic reforms, higher jobs and enhancements to the schooling system.