DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s president dissolved parliament Tuesday, clearing the way for new elections to replace the longtime prime minister who resigned and fled the country following weeks of demonstrations against her rule that descended into violent unrest.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin also ordered the release of opposition leader Khaleda Zia from house arrest. Zia, a longtime rival of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was convicted of corruption charges by Hasina’s government in 2018.
On Tuesday, some senior positions in the military were reshuffled. The student protesters said they would not allow any military-backed government.
The streets of Dhaka appeared calmer Tuesday, with no reports of new violence as jubilant protesters thronged the ousted leader’s residence. Some posed for selfies with soldiers guarding the building where a day earlier angry protesters had looted furniture, paintings, flower pots and chickens.
Amid security concerns, the main airport in Dhaka, the capital, resumed operations after eight hours of suspension.
The Bangladesh Police Association said Tuesday it was enforcing a strike across the country because of a lack of security and safety after numerous police stations were attacked on Monday killing many officers, though it didn’t give any number of the dead.
In a statement, it also said that officers would not return to work unless their security was ensured. The association also issued an apology for the violent attack on student protesters.
As the country waited for a new government to emerge, a key student leader said protesters wanted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus to head an interim government. Yunus — who is currently in Paris for the Olympics — called Hasina’s resignation the country’s “second liberation day.” He could not immediately be reached for comment, but a key organizer of protests, Nahid Islam said Yunus had agreed.
Islam said protesters would propose more names for the cabinet, and suggested that it would be difficult for those in power to ignore their wishes.
Hasina fled to India by helicopter on Monday as protesters defied military curfew orders to march on the capital, with thousands of demonstrators eventually storming her official residence and other buildings associated with her party and family. Protests against a quota system for government jobs, that critics said favored people with connections to her party, grew into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule that was marked by human rights abuses, corruption, and allegations of rigged elections amid a brutal crackdown on her opponents.
A bloody crackdown on the demonstrations led to clashes that left scores dead, further fueling the movement.
Military chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman said he was taking temporary control of the country after Hasina resigned, and he and the country’s figurehead president promised an interim government would be formed soon to preside over new elections.
But the chaos left in the wake of Hasina’s ouster has created a power vacuum and it is unclear what it would mean for the South Asian nation with a history of military rule and messy politics that has in the past pushed the country into many political crises.
The military wields significant political influence in Bangladesh, which has faced more than 20 coups or coup attempts since its independence from Pakistan in 1971.
It was not clear if Hasina’s resignation or the military chief’s calls for calm would be enough to end the turmoil, and whether the army would have any role in the interim government or if it would try to influence it from outside. The student protesters have warned that they would not allow any military-backed government.
But Zaman said the military would investigate all the killings and punish the responsible, giving in to the weeks-long demand of the protesters.
Earlier Tuesday, protest leader Sarjis Alam told reporters that they had asked the president to dissolve Parliament by 3:00 p.m., and threatened to renew demonstrations otherwise as they seek to “repair the state.”
“We have proposed the name of Muhammad Yunus with his consent, now if someone else comes from among the MPs, we will not allow that to happen,” he said.
A longtime opponent of the ousted leader, Yunus was accused of corruption by her government and tried on charges he said were motivated by vengeance. He received the Nobel in 2006 for work pioneering microlending.
Amid celebrations, student Juairia Karim said it was a historic day: “Today we are getting what we deserve,” she said. “Everyone is happy, everyone is cheerful.”
But the country was still counting the toll of weeks of violent unrest that produced some of the country’s worst bloodshed since the 1971 War of Independence. Many fear that Hasina’s departure could lead to even more instability in the densely populated South Asian nation, which is already dealing with crises from high unemployment to corruption to climate change.
Violence just before and after Hasina’s resignation left at least 109 people dead, including 14 police officers, and hundreds of others injured, according to media reports, which could not be independently confirmed.
In the southwestern district of Satkhira, 596 prisoners and detainees escaped from a jail after an attack on the facility Monday evening, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported, as police stations and security officials were attacked across the country.
Police in Dhaka mostly left their stations and assembled in a central barracks in fear of attacks after several stations were torched or vandalized.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party Tuesday urged people to exercise restraint in what it said was a “transitional moment on our democratic path.”
“It would defeat the spirit of the revolution that toppled the illegitimate and autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina if people decide to take the law into their own hands without due process,” Tarique Rahman, the party’s acting chairman, wrote on the social media platform X.
In a statement Monday, the United Nation’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, said the transition of power in Bangladesh must be “in line with the country’s international obligations” and “inclusive and open to the meaningful participation of all Bangladeshis.”
Hasina landed at a military airfield near New Delhi on Monday after leaving Dhaka and met India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, the Indian Express newspaper reported. The report said Hasina was taken to a safe house and plans to travel to the United Kingdom.
The 76-year-old was elected for a fourth consecutive term in a January vote that was boycotted by her main opponents. Thousands of opposition members were jailed before the polls, and the U.S. and the U.K. denounced the result as not credible, though the government defended it.
India’s external affairs minister confirmed her presence in the country, but did not indicate whether she intends to stay.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told parliament that Hasina “at very short notice (she) requested approval to come for the moment to India.”
The U.S. issued a new travel advisory on Bangladesh Tuesday, asking its citizens not to travel to the country “due to civil unrest, crime, and terrorism”.
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Saaliq reported from New Delhi, India.
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