“She fled the country”: swept away by an unprecedented protest movement, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigns

Scènes de liesse au Bangladesh. MAXPPP – Rubel Karmaker

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in power since 2009, resigned on Monday, August 5 and fled the country, swept up in a protest movement of unprecedented violence since independence in 1971.

In an address to the nation, the commander-in-chief of the army, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, announced Sheikh Hasina's resignation and assured that an interim government would be formed.

The daughter of the father of Bangladesh's independence, former president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in Dhaka in 1975, Sheikh Hasina, 76, had been in power for 15 years, after a first term between 1996 and 2001. The former Prime Minister was flown to India by military helicopter, accompanied by her sister, according to media reports.

According to the Indian news agency ANI, the plane landed at a military base near New Delhi. Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports. Sheikh Hasina's authority had been contested since she was reappointed in January following parliamentary elections boycotted by the opposition, including Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and won by the prime minister's party, the Awami League.

The crisis erupted last July with anti-government protests led by a student group, “Students against discrimination” ("Students Against Discrimination"), who were protesting against the reinstatement in June of quotas in the civil service, considered discriminatory.

Demonstrators denounced an act by the prince of the Awami League to reserve positions for his supporters, in a country where some 18 million young people are unemployed.

Some 250 people were killed and thousands more injured in clashes between supporters of Hasina and the opposition and during the intervention of security forces. On Sunday, fresh clashes between protesters and police left at least 91 people dead, including 13 police officers, and hundreds injured.

Scenes of jubilation in Dhaka 

General Waker-Uz-Zaman called for calm and promised a quick end to the crisis. He assured that he had had "fruitful discussions” with the country's major parties except the Awami League, and said he would soon meet President Mohammed Shahabuddin to discuss the way forward.

“The country is going through a revolutionary period,”, said the officer, who took office on June 23. “I promise you that I will bring justice, against killings and injustice. We ask you to have faith in your country's army. “I take full responsibility and I assure you that you will not be disappointed,” he said.

“I ask you to be a little patient, to give us time, and together we can solve all the problems,” he continued.“Please do not return to the path of violence, return to non-violent and peaceful ways”, the army commander-in-chief urged.

Upon the announcement of Sheikh Hasina's departure, thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Dhaka to demonstrate their joy. Thousands of protesters stormed Sheikh Hasina's official residence, doing the “V” of victory and raising their fists.

Some carried away televisions, chairs and tables from the Ganabhaban residence, once one of the country's most heavily guarded buildings, according to state television footage. “She fled the country, she fled,” the protesters chanted, some of them climbing atop a statue of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and hacking off its head with an axe.