Facing mass protests, Bangladesh leader quits, setting up power struggle

DHAKA, Bangladesh — They came prepared for violence. A day after about 100 people were killed in anti-government protests, hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, defying a curfew imposed by the government and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

They got their wish. After 15 years of increasingly autocratic rule during which she crushed the opposition and brought the armed forces and the judiciary under her control, Hasina bowed to pressure and, according to the military, quit her post and fled the country in a helicopter.

The downfall of her government, in a country known for its messy and sometimes bloody politics, plunged the country into lawless uncertainty and all but guaranteed that there will be a fresh battle for power between leaders of her political party, the Awami League, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, its main opposition.

It remained unclear what role the military, which has seized power in the past, will play — or whether it had a hand in persuading Hasina to leave. On Monday afternoon, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, the Bangladesh army chief of staff, announced her departure and said he would request the formation of an interim government.

Neither Hasina, 76, nor the Awami League made any public comment on the head-spinning turn of events that few people had predicted.

The recent unrest began with student-led demonstrations against a quota system for government jobs, but they quickly broadened into protests against a government seen as increasingly authoritarian, and were met with a brutal crackdown. Thousands were arrested and scores were killed.

Student leaders had initially called for a march Tuesday but decided to accelerate that timetable, moving the event to Monday after about 100 people died in clashes Sunday.

In Dhaka, what could have been a day of street battles turned into a street party, as many jubilant protesters marched through the city center.

On Monday evening, leaders of the opposition and the country’s defense leaders met at the residence of Mohammed Shahabuddin, an Awami League supporter who holds the largely ceremonial post of president, to determine next steps.

After the meeting, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said that the current parliament will be dissolved and the interim government will hold an election within three months.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2024 The New York Times Company