Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina flees as protesters storm palace, army says interim government to be formed

DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country on Monday (Aug 5) after hundreds of people were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations that began as protests against job quotas and swelled into a movement demanding her downfall.
Jubilant, cheering crowds stormed into the opulent grounds of the presidential residence unopposed, carrying out looted furniture and TVs. One man balanced a red velvet, gilt-edged chair on his head. Another held an armful of vases.
Elsewhere in Dhaka, protesters climbed atop a statue of Hasina’s father, state founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and began chiselling away at the head with an axe.
The flight into exile ended a 15-year second stint in power for Hasina, who has ruled for 20 of the last 30 years as leader of the political movement inherited from her father, assassinated with most of his family in a 1975 coup.
Hasina had left the country for her own safety at the insistence of her family, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy told the BBC World Service.
Hasina was “so disappointed that after all her hard work, for a minority to rise up against her”, Joy said.
She would not attempt to mount a political comeback, he said.
Earlier, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised address to the nation and said an interim government would be formed. He called for peace and promised justice for those killed in weeks of unrest.
He said he had held talks with leaders of major political parties – excluding Hasina’s long-ruling Awami League – and would soon meet President Mohammed Shahabuddin to discuss the way ahead.
“The country is going through a revolutionary period,” said Zaman, 58, who had taken over as army chief only on Jun 23.
“I promise you all, we will bring justice to all the murders and injustice. We request you to have faith in the army of the country,” he said.
“Please don’t go back to the path of violence and please return to non-violent and peaceful ways.”
India’s ANI news agency said Hasina, 76, landed at a military airfield near Delhi. Reuters could not verify this, but commercial tracking services showed a Bangladesh Air Force plane had left the country and flown west before disappearing from tracking near Delhi.
Citing sources, ANI reported that India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and senior military officers met Hasina at the airfield and she was being moved to a safe location.
Bangladesh has been engulfed by violence since student protests last month against the quotas, which reserve some public sector jobs for veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war, seen as favouring allies of the ruling party.
The protests escalated into a campaign demanding the overthrow of Hasina, and were met by a violent crackdown in which about 250 people have been killed and thousands injured.
The country, once one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, has been plagued lately by slow economic growth, inflation and unemployment.
Hasina’s son Joy defended her record: “She has turned Bangladesh around. When she took over power it was considered a failing state. It was a poor country. Until today it was considered one of the rising tigers of Asia.”
Hasina had won a fourth straight term only in January this year in an election boycotted by the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of her nemesis Begum Khaleda Zia.
Hasina had ruled since winning a decades-long power struggle with Zia in 2009. The two women each inherited political movements from slain rulers – in Hasina’s case, from her father Mujib; in Zia’s case, from her husband Ziaur Rahman, who took power after Mujib’s death and was himself assassinated in 1981.
“Hasina’s resignation proves the power of the people,” said Tarique Rahman, the exiled eldest son of the two Zias who now serves as acting chairman of the opposition party.
“Together, let’s rebuild Bangladesh into a democratic and developed nation, where the rights and freedoms of all people are protected,” he posted on X.
Student activists had called for a march to the capital Dhaka on Monday in defiance of a nationwide curfew to press Hasina to resign after clashes across the country on Sunday killed nearly 100 people.
On Monday, at least 56 people were killed during violent unrest as the prime minister was ousted, police and doctors said, updating an earlier toll.
At least 44 of the dead were brought to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, an AFP correspondent said, reporting all had bullet wounds.
Police said 11 others were killed elsewhere in the capital and another in the port city of Chittagong.
Sunday’s death toll, which included at least 13 policemen, was the highest for a single day from any protests in Bangladesh’s recent history, surpassing the 67 deaths reported on July 19 when students took to the streets against the quotas.
Last month, at least 150 people were killed and thousands injured in violence touched off by student groups protesting against the job quotas.
The government declared the indefinite nationwide curfew starting at 6pm local time on Sunday and also announced a three-day general holiday starting from Monday.
Over the weekend, there were attacks, vandalism and arson targeting government buildings, offices of Hasina’s Awami League party, police stations and houses of public representatives.
Garment factories in the country, which supply apparel to some of world’s top brands, were closed indefinitely.
The role of the country’s army in tackling the violence had come into focus with a group of retired military officers urging Hasina to withdraw troops from the streets and undertake “political initiatives” to resolve the crisis.
Critics of Hasina, along with human rights groups, have accused her government of using excessive force against protesters, a charge she and her ministers deny.
Hasina had said that “those who are carrying out violence are not students but terrorists who are out to destabilise the nation”.