Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigns, leaves Bangladesh, ending 15-year rule

DHAKA, BANGLADESH: Bangladesh's 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 embattled leader boarding a military helicopter with her sister, Bangladesh's military chief General Waker-uz-Zaman announced plans to seek the president's guidance on forming an interim government.

He promised that the military would stand down, and launch an investigation into the deadly crackdowns that fueled outrage against the government, and asked citizens for time to restore peace.

"Keep faith in the military, we will investigate all the killings and punish the responsible," he said. "I have ordered that no army and police will indulge in any kind of firing."

"Now, the students' duty is to stay calm and help us," 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 at Dhaka University.

The government's attempts to quell the demonstrations with force, curfews and internet shutdowns backfired, prompting further outrage as nearly 300 people were killed and leading to demands for an end to her 15 years in power.

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

Broadband internet and mobile data services were restored across Bangladesh on Monday, while anti-government protesters vowed to march to the capital to demand the prime minister's resignation, defying a military-ordered curfew after a weekend of violence that left about 100 people dead.

The protests began peacefully as frustrated students demanded an end to a quota system for government jobs, but the demonstrations have since morphed into an unprecedented challenge and uprising against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ruling Awami League party.

The government has attempted to quell the violence with force, leaving nearly 300 people dead and fueling further outrage and calls for Hasina to step down.

At least 95 people, including at least 14 police officers, died in clashes in the capital on Sunday, according to the country's leading Bengali-language daily newspaper, Prothom Alo. Hundreds more were injured in the violence.
Authorities first shut off mobile internet on Sunday in an attempt to quell the unrest, while the broadband internet stopped working from late Monday morning. This is the second internet blackout in the country after the protests turned deadly in July.

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

The military-imposed curfew went into effect Sunday night and covered Dhaka and other divisional and district headquarters. The government had earlier imposed a curfew with some exceptions in the capital and elsewhere.

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

Bangladesh has previously shut down internet services in areas affected by 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 rallies and were limited in scope to one city or district. That came after six shutdowns in 2022.

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

The prime minister's ruling Awami League party said the demand for her resignation showed that the protests have been taken over by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami party.

Hasina's 15-year dominance over the country is being tested like never before.

The 76-year-old was elected for a fourth consecutive term in a January vote that was boycotted by her main opponents, triggering questions over how free and fair the vote was. Thousands of opposition members were jailed in the lead-up to the polls, which the government defended as democratically held.

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

Her political opponents have previously accused her of growing increasingly autocratic and called her a threat to the country's democracy, and many now say the unrest is a result of her authoritarian streak and hunger for control at all costs.

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

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

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

As the violence crested, the country's Supreme Court ruled that the veterans' quota must be cut to 5%, with 93% of jobs to be allocated on merit. The remaining 2% will be set aside for members of ethnic minorities and transgender and disabled people. The government accepted the decision, but protesters have continued demanding accountability for the violence they blame on the government's use of force.

Hasina's administration has blamed the opposition parties and their student wings for instigating the violence in which several state-owned establishments were also torched or vandalised.

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

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

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

By RSS/AP