Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Aping the Sri Lankans of 2022, a huge crowd of anti-quota protestors stormed the Prime Minister’s official residence in Dhaka, soon after Sheikh Hasina Wazed resigned and fled along with her younger sister Rehana, the media reported on Monday afternoon.
The Bangladesh Army gave an ultimatum of 45 minutes to PM Hasina to resign from her post, sources told Times Now.
She boarded a military helicopter, an aide told Al Jazeera after crowds ignored a national curfew to storm the PM’s residence.
Reports said after fleeing Dhaka, she landed in Agartala, Tripura, adding she might leave for London via Delhi.
Her departure may have defused the volatile political situation for the time being in Dhaka as the protestors were seen celebrating their “victory” inside the PM’s residence, the reports said.
Around 300 people died amid weeks of protests the authorities sought to crush. Following a night of deadly violence that killed close to 100 on Sunday, tension mounted on Monday as protesters called for a march on Dhaka and the army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, prepared to address the nation.
By early afternoon, however, media reported, the mood on the streets had turned to one of celebration after the news of PM Hasina’s departure spread. Images on national television showed thousands of people breaking into the PM’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.
In an address to the nation, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, the Chief of Army Staff, confirmed that the PM had resigned and that an interim government would now run the country. He urged citizens to trust 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 army chief added.
“Everybody is celebrating, not just students – people from all walks of life. They said this had to happen, there was nothing we could say, democracy was squeezed and now we are free,” Al Jazeera reported.
The message from the protesters was that whoever comes to power next “will now know that they won’t tolerate any kind of dictatorship or mismanagement and that the students will decide.”
Protests in the country started months ago over controversial governmental job quotas. They soon morphed into nationwide unrest and an unprecedented uprising against PM Hasina and her ruling Awami League party, which had won a massive majority in parliamentary elections only in January 2024.
Now that she is gone and the army has promised an interim government, the military has a “very tough job ahead,” said Irene Khan, a UN special rapporteur.
“We are all hoping that the transition would be peaceful and that there will be accountability for all the human rights violations that have taken place recently including the killing of about 300 people in the last three weeks,” Khan said.
“Bangladesh has, of course, an enormous task ahead. It is not the poster child of sustainable development anymore. The previous government had driven this country into despair, and there would be a lot of hard work to do to build it up. But most of all I think it’s extremely important that the army respect human rights.”
At a press conference, the army chief confirmed Hasina’s resignation, adding that an interim government would be formed to run the country.
Meanwhile, India’s Border Security Force (BSF) issued a ‘high alert’ for all units along the 4,096 km India-Bangladesh border to prevent any influx of people. Acting BSF Director-General Daljit Singh Chawdhary and other senior officials arrived in Kolkata to assess border security.
Last month, at least 150 people were killed and thousands injured in violence touched off by student groups protesting against reserved quotas in government jobs.
The ‘Students Against Discrimination’ group, which was at the forefront of last month’s job quota protests, was leading the latest demonstrations with support from many political parties.
The protests to reform the quota system paused after the Supreme Court scrapped most quotas on July 21. Protesters, however, returned last week demanding a public apology from PM Hasina for the violence, restoration of internet connections, reopening of college and university campuses, and release of those arrested.
By the weekend, the demonstrations spiraled into a campaign seeking Hasina’s ouster as demonstrators demanded justice for people killed last month.
The students’ group called for a nationwide non-cooperation movement starting Sunday with a single-point agenda: Hasina must resign.
The protesters blame Hasina’s government for the violence during the protests in July. Hasina’s critics and rights groups accused her government of using excessive force against protesters, a charge the government denies.
Hasina and her government initially said students were not involved in the violence during the quota protests and blamed the Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), for the clashes and arson.
But after violence erupted again on Sunday, Hasina said that “those who are carrying out violence are not students but terrorists who are out to destabilize the nation.” Earlier, she had compared the protestors with the ‘Razakars’ the Bangla collaborators of the Pakistan Army before, during, and after the Liberation War of 1971.
The student group declined Hasina’s offer for peace talks to resolve the crisis.
Demonstrations started at university campuses in June after the High Court reinstated a quota system for government jobs, overturning a 2018 decision by Hasina’s government to scrap it.
The Supreme Court suspended the high court order after the government’s appeal and then dismissed the lower court order last month, directing that 93% of jobs should be open to candidates on merit.
Experts also attribute the current unrest in Bangladesh to stagnant job growth in the private sector, making public sector jobs, with their accompanying regular wage hikes and privileges, very attractive.
The quotas sparked anger among students grappling with high youth unemployment, as nearly 32 million young people are out of work or education in a population of 170 million.
The flagging economy, once among the world’s fastest-growing on the back of the country’s booming garments sector, has stagnated. Inflation hovers around 10 percent per annum and dollar reserves are shrinking.