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Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigns and flees country
Hasina’s resignation, announced by Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, comes after hundreds have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in recent weeks.
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country Monday as protesters stormed her residence and set fire to government offices, marking a dramatic end to a 15-year rule that had faced violent opposition in recent months.
Bangladeshi army chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised address, adding that an interim government would be formed in the coming days. Weeks of bloody clashes between protesters and Hasina’s security forces had intensified this past weekend, with dozens killed on Sunday alone.
Now, the country of 171 million has been thrust into a level of political turmoil that it has not seen in decades.
“Please trust the armed forces. I am taking full responsibility to protect all lives and property,” Waker-Uz-Zaman said to the nation. He called for an end to the violence and promised a full investigation. “I assure you that you will not be disappointed,” he said, adding, “Every single death will be investigated; every atrocity will be discussed.”
Regular life has been upended across Bangladesh. Most of the garment factories that power the country’s economy did not open Monday. Flights into the capital, Dhaka, were canceled as its main airport temporarily shut down operations. Businesses shut their doors as hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of major cities, blaring horns, chanting and setting fire to vehicles and buildings.
Crowds of protesters earlier broke into Hasina’s official residence, looting furniture, artifacts and stationery. According to local media reports, Hasina escaped her residence minutes before it was stormed, leaving on a helicopter to India with her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana.
Speaking to the BBC, Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said his mother had left for her own safety and did not have plans to lead the country again. “She has turned Bangladesh around,” Joy said, defending his mother’s legacy. “When she took over power, it was considered a failing state. It was a poor country. Until today, it’s considered one of the rising tigers of Asia.”
Celebrating in the streets of Dhaka, Rakibul Islam, a student at Abudharr Ghifari College, said he had been at the demonstrations since they started in early July and had been confident that the student protesters would prevail. “It seems that we have been liberated again. I am over the moon,” Islam said. “I am going to celebrate this victory for a long, long time.”
Mohaiminul Islam Fahim, 19, called Hasina a “tyrant” as he stood in downtown Dhaka, smoke rising behind him from a motorcycle on fire. The prime minister shouldn’t have been allowed to leave, Fahim said, adding: “We want her to be brought to justice.”
The protests that have gripped Bangladesh over the past month started in opposition to a government policy that reserves half of civil service jobs for certain groups but evolved into a broad-based opposition movement against Hasina, who has become increasingly authoritarian, rights groups and security analysts say. Since taking office in 2009, she has been accused of manipulating the country’s elections — including by suing and jailing political opponents — to maintain her grip on power.
At least 300 people were killed in clashes between the two sides over the past month, the majority “shot dead by police, paramilitaries and members of the ruling Awami League,” according to the International Crisis Group. Hasina showed little indication of backing down as the toll climbed, saying as recently as last week that the protesters were “not students, but terrorists.”
When a fresh bout of protests took place Sunday, the government scrambled to impose a nationwide curfew. Protesters defied the order.
Shortly after the government announced at noon Monday that the army chief would address the nation, street barriers were removed in Dhaka. Demonstrators gathered in Shahbagh Square, many of them wearing red ribbons on their heads as a symbol of protest, and streamed toward the prime minister’s official residence, known as the Ganabhaban.
Television footage showed thousands of angry protesters entering the residence — some climbing atop a statue of the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who is also Hasina’s father. Others recorded videos of themselves inside what appeared to be Hasina’s living room. Local media broadcast footage of protesters breaking into Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan’s residence and setting fire to the ruling Awami League party’s office and the home of the country’s chief justice.
A high-ranking official in Hasina’s office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns, said in a text message that he was scrambling to leave Dhaka. “Pray for me,” he wrote.
Bangladeshi security forces, which had in recent weeks responded to protests with tear gas and rubber bullets, largely stood aside. Videos shared by protesters showed some units of the military cruising the streets of the capital, shaking hands with civilians.
Tarique Rahman, the exiled acting chairman of Bangladesh’s opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), urged calm. “Please do not be vengeful. Please don’t take the law into your own hands,” he said in a statement.
Hasina’s Awami League and its allies won an election earlier this year that the United States said was neither free nor fair. The BNP had boycotted the election after thousands of its leaders and supporters were arrested in the run-up to polling day.
It’s not immediately clear how a new government will be formed in the wake of Hasina’s resignation. Protest leaders have asserted that they intend to form their own government and will reject martial law. Others have called for new elections.
“We had an imaginary election in the past. Now we need a real election,” Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus said in an interview. Yunus, who pioneered microfinance and microcredit, had become one of most prominent targets of Hasina’s government in recent years and faced hundreds of lawsuits for charges that ranged from corruption to forgery. He said he expects these “fake cases” to be dropped now that Hasina has departed. “Finally, the monster who was on top of us has left,” he said.
Hasina’s departure is “a new liberation” for Bangladesh, said Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of the Citizens for Good Governance, a civil society organization.
“This was the people’s war, and they have won,” he added.
(c) 2024, The Washington Post
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