By MunaMubendeOwensonga
Bangladesh PM Hasina quits and flees as protesters storm palace
Sheikh Hasina’s departure appears to have defused the high tension in Dhaka, where more deadly protests were feared on Monday.
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled the country in the face of ongoing protests.
The longtime leader of the country has boarded a military helicopter, an aide said, after crowds ignored a national curfew to storm the prime minister’s palace in Dhaka on Monday.
The mood on the streets had turned to one of celebration after the news of Hasina’s departure spread.
In an address to the nation, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, the Chief of Army Staff, confirmed that the prime minister has resigned and that an interim government will now run the country.
He urged citizens to keep trust in the army, which, he said, would return peace to the country.
“We will also ensure that justice is served for every death and crime that occurred during the protests,” he said, calling on the public to exercise patience and cease any acts of violence and vandalism.
“We have invited representatives from all major political parties, and they have accepted our invitation and committed to collaborating with us,” the general added.
Images on national television showed thousands of people breaking into the prime minister’s official residence.
It also showed large crowds of protesters out in the street in scenes of jubilation as the news of the departure of Hasina started spreading.
Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Shahbag Square – the epicentre of the student protesters – said he has “never witnessed something like this” in the capital.
“Students and families with their children out celebrating, checking if she has either left the country or resigned,” Chowdhury said.
“The government has most likely fallen, and the army will decide what the next step is, which is probably an interim government,” he added.
Protests in the country started a months ago over controversial governmental job quotas.
They soon morphed into a nationwide unrest and into an unprecedented uprising against Hasina and her ruling Awami League party.
The army chief of Bangladesh says Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned after weeks of unrest.
In an address to the nation, General Waker-Uz-Zaman also says an interim government will be formed to run the country.
Who is Sheikh Hasina?
She was once called a “democracy icon” in Bangladesh for her fight against a military regime.
But in her 16-year-long stint since 2009, the Awami League party’s chief was seen as an “authoritarian” leader, accused of rights abuses and a crackdown on opposition.
The 76-year-old won her fourth straight term in a controversial election in January this year, which was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and marked by a low turnout.
Born in 1947 in southwestern Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, Hasina is the daughter of the country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.
In 1981, she joined hands with political foe, BNP chief and former PM Khaleda Zia, to lead a popular uprising for democracy that toppled military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad from power in 1990.
Hasina first served a term as prime minister in 1996 but lost to Zia five years later.
The pair were then imprisoned on corruption charges in 2007 after a coup by a military-backed government.
She won a landslide in 2008 and had been in power since.
