Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigns, ends 15 years in power: NPR

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday, ending 15 years in power as thousands of protesters defied a military curfew and stormed her official residence.

Shortly after local media showed the leader crashing aboard a military helicopter with his sister, Bangladeshi military chief General Waker-uz-Zaman announced plans to seek the president’s guidance for training of an interim government.

He promised that the army would withdraw, and to launch an investigation into the deadly repression that fueled the indignation against the government, and asked the citizens time to restore peace.

“Keep faith in the military, we will investigate all killings and punish those responsible,” he said. “I have ordered that the army and the police will not indulge in any kind of fire.”

“Now, the students’ duty is to stay calm and help,” he added.

The protests began peacefully in late June as students sought an end to a quota system for government jobs, but turned violent after clashes between protesters and police and pro-government activists in the University of Dhaka.

Government attempts to quell the protests with force, curfews and internet shutdowns have backfired, sparking further outrage as nearly 300 people have been killed and leading to calls for an end to his 15-year rule .

On Sunday, nearly 100 people were killed as protesters clashed with security officials and ruling party activists across the country.

Broadband internet and mobile data services were restored across Bangladesh earlier Monday as anti-government protesters vowed to march on the capital to demand the prime minister’s resignation, defying an ordered curfew by the army after a weekend of violence that left around 100 dead.

The protests began peacefully as frustrated students demanded an end to a quota system for government jobs, but the demonstrations turned into an unprecedented challenge and revolt against Hasina and her League party. Awami.

The government tried to quell the violence with force, leaving nearly 300 people dead and fueling further outrage and calls for Hasina to resign.

At least 95 people, including at least 14 police officers, died in clashes in the capital on Sunday, according to the country’s main Bengali-language newspaper, Prothom Alo. Hundreds more were injured in the violence.

Authorities shut down mobile internet earlier on Sunday in an attempt to quell the unrest, while broadband internet stopped working as of late Monday morning. This is the second internet blackout in the country after protests turned deadly in July.

On Monday, after three hours of suspension of broadband services, both broadband and mobile internet are back.

The curfew imposed by the military came into force on Sunday night and covers Dhaka and other divisional and district headquarters. The government had previously imposed a curfew with some exceptions in the capital and elsewhere.

The government has also announced a holiday from Monday to Wednesday. Courts have to be closed indefinitely. Mobile internet service was cut, and Facebook and messaging apps, including WhatsApp, were inaccessible on Monday.

Bangladesh has previously shut down internet services in areas affected by the protests, using it as a measure to suppress dissent by opposition parties. Internet watchdog Access Now said it recorded three shutdowns in the country in 2023, all of which overlapped with opposition demonstrations and were limited in scope to a city or district. It came after six closures in 2022.

Hasina said the protesters who engaged in “sabotage” and destruction are no longer students but criminals, and said people should deal with them with iron hands.

The prime minister’s Awami League party said the demand for his resignation showed that the protests had been picked up by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami party.

Hasina’s 15-year rule over the country has been tested like never before.

The 76-year-old was elected to a fourth consecutive term in a January vote that was boycotted by his main opponents, raising questions about how free and fair the vote was. Thousands of opposition members were jailed ahead of the vote, which the government defended as democratic.

Today, he is the longest-serving leader in the history of Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim nation of more than 160 million people strategically located between India and Myanmar.

His political opponents have previously accused him of becoming increasingly autocratic and called him a threat to the country’s democracy, and many now say the unrest is the result of his authoritarian streak and hunger for control. all costs.

At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks. The unrest also resulted in the closure of schools and universities across the country, and authorities at one point imposed a gun-on-sight curfew.

Over the weekend, protesters called for a “non-cooperation” effort, ordering people not to pay taxes or utility bills and not show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories have opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities have faced challenges getting to work.

The protests began last month when students called for an end to a quota system that reserved 30% of government jobs for families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s independence war against to Pakistan in 1971.

As the violence increased, the Supreme Court of the country established that the quota of veterans should be cut to 5%, with 93% of the jobs to be awarded by merit. The remaining 2% will be reserved for members of ethnic and transgender minorities and disabled people. The government accepted the decision, but the protesters continued to demand responsibility for the violence that they blamed on the use of force by the government.

Hasina’s administration has blamed opposition parties and their student wings for instigating the violence in which several state-owned establishments were also set on fire or vandalized.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of the main opposition party, repeated a call for the government to resign to stop the chaos.

Hasina offered to speak with student leaders on Saturday, but a coordinator refused and announced a one-point demand for her resignation. Hasina repeated her promise to investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. She said she was ready to sit down when the protesters wanted to.

The protests have become a major challenge for Hasina, who has ruled the country for more than 15 years. He returned to power for a fourth consecutive term in January in an election that was boycotted by his main opponents.