Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 31
The president of Bangladesh has dissolved the country’s parliament after an ultimatum issued by the coordinators of student protests that forced the resignation on Monday of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.
The office of the president, Mohammed Shahabuddin, also announced that the former prime minister and opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia had been officially released from prison and given a full presidential pardon.
The announcements came as student protest leaders were in a meeting on Tuesday with the army chief, Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman, after the military announced it would form an interim government following the departure of Hasina.
On Monday, Hasina resigned and fled the country after at least 300 people were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations that began as student protests against preferential job quotas and swelled into a movement demanding her downfall.
Celebrations erupted on Monday after Hasina resigned, and continued overnight. The prime minister’s residence was overrun and looted and several of the ruling party’s offices were set alight.
Reports suggested calm had returned to the streets on Tuesday and many of the crowds were helping in the clear-up or congregating in peaceful gatherings around the capital, Dhaka, and other towns and cities.
An interim government would hold elections as soon as possible after consulting all parties and stakeholders, Shahabuddin said in a televised address late on Monday.
The US Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said the interim government must aim to set up swift democratic elections. “PM Hasina’s violent reaction to legitimate protests made her continued rule untenable. I applaud the brave protesters and demand justice for those killed.”
Hasina won a fifth term in January in an election boycotted by the opposition and called out as not free and fair by international observers.
Source: The Guardian
