Finance
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned, and an interim administration would be formed to manage the country, Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said on Monday.
In a televised message to the nation, General Waker-Uz-Zaman asked civilians to continue to trust the Bangladesh Army, claiming that the defense forces will maintain calm in the coming days.
The Army chief also stated that he will be meeting President Mohammed Shahabuddin soon.
Earlier, various reports indicated that Hasina left for a “safer place” as hundreds of protestors reached Gonobhaban, the Prime Minister’s official house in Dhaka.
According to reports, over 100 people were murdered and over 1,000 were injured in Sunday’s battles between police and demonstrators.
“With yesterday’s count, the death toll in anti-government protests crossed 300 in just three weeks, making it the bloodiest period in the history of Bangladesh’s civil movement,” Bangladesh’s leading daily ‘The Daily Star’ reported.
The student-led non-cooperation campaign has put enormous pressure on Prime Minister Hasina’s government in recent weeks.
The students were protesting a 30% reservation in government jobs for relatives of freedom fighters who won Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in a bloody civil war in 1971, during which, according to Dhaka officials, 3 million people were killed in a genocide by Pakistani troops and supporters.
After the Supreme Court reduced the reservations to 5%, student leaders halted the rallies, but the demonstrations resumed as the students claimed the government ignored their demands to free all of their leaders, making PM Hasina’s resignation their major demand.
Source:IANS
