Bangladesh updates: PM Hasina resigns amid massive protests

Having served for a combined total of over 20 years (June 1996 to July 2001 and January 2009 to August 2024), Sheikh Hasina is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Bangladesh's history.

The daughter of Bengali nationalist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and first president of Bangladesh, she survived a 1975 coup d'etat, which saw her father and most of her family murdered.

Having been visiting Europe at the time, Hasina took refuge in the house of the Bangladeshi ambassador to West Germany with her husband and children. After accepting an offer of political asylum from Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the family remained in New Delhi for six years, but Hasina was banned from returning to Bangladesh by the military government.

She finally returned home in May 1981 as head of the Awami League, became leader of the opposition in 1991 and became Prime Minister for the first time in 1996.

After returning to opposition in 2001, she survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Dhaka in 2004 before being detained on extortion charges during the 2006-2008 political crisis.

After her release, she won a second term as Prime Minister at the head of a "Grand Alliance" in 2009, going on to win third, fourth and fifth terms in elections regularly boycotted by opposition parties and criticized by international observers.

She resigned and fled the country on August 5, 2024. 

The current massive anti-government protests in Bangladesh have their roots in student-led rallies that began in mid-July, during which demonstrators voiced opposition to a high court decision to reinstate quotas for government jobs after they had been abolished in 2018 following massive student protests.

Under the quota system, more than half of civil service jobs were reserved for specific groups. For example, 30% of government jobs were set aside for family members of veterans who fought in the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

In response to the public anger, on July 21 the Supreme Court cut the quotas, advising that 93% of all appointments should be based on merit with immediate effect, with 5% going to descendants of so-called freedom fighters, and 2% to people from ethnic minorities or with disabilities.

The government accepted the advice of the court, but this failed to mollify protesters, who continued to stage wider anti-government demonstrations calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down, a demand with which she has now seemingly complied.

The protesters have also called for authorities to be held accountable for those killed during the protests, the number of which is estimated to be in the hundreds. 

In confirming Hasina's resignation on Monday, Bangladesh's army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman added that authorities would "punish" those responsible for protest deaths. 

"The country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, many people have been killed, it is time to stop the violence," he said in a televised speech. 

Hasina's ruling Awami League party has claimed the transformation of the rallies into broader anti-government protests is an indicator that the protests have been appropriated by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami party.

Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has flown by helicopter to India's northeastern city of Agartala as she flees from massive anti-government protests, according to multiple intelligence sources speaking to media. 

Agartala, the capital of the Indian state of Tripura, is just 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) east of the border to Bangladesh

India is set to offer a safe passage to Hasina, the reports said, citing intelligence sources.

In an address to the nation, Bangladesh's army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman has said he will form an interim government, confirming that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had resigned. 

He added that he would seek the president's guidance on forming a new government.

"I am taking full responsibility," the general said, although it was not clear if he would head a caretaker government.

Zaman also promised justice for all those killed during weeks of anti-government protests, adding that the military would stand down.

"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."

In his address, he also called on students to remain calm and go home, saying he was trying to "find a solution for the country."

His remarks come after Hasina was reported to have fled the country amid the massive demonstrations, during which dozens, including police, are said to have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces.

Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center, told AFP news agency that Hasina's departure "would leave a major vacuum."

"If it's a peaceful transition, with an interim set-up taking over until elections are held, then stability risks would be modest and the consequences would be limited," he said.

"But if there is a violent transition or a period of uncertainty, that could risk more destabilization and problems inside and outside."

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has stepped down from her position after 15 years in power, the army has said.

The move comes after weeks of massive protests that began as rallies against job quotas in the civil service but have since mutated into demonstrations calling for the 76-year-old Hasina's resignation.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government has been accused by rights groups of suppressing dissent by violent means and of abusing state institutions to bolster its hold on power.

Protesters stormed Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's palace on Monday after reports emerged that she had fled to safety.

Bangladesh's Channel 24 broadcast images of crowds running into the compound, waving to the camera as they celebrated.

Student protesters had been calling for a march on the capital, Dhaka, following deadly protests on Sunday that claimed dozens of lives, including those of 14 police officers.

Security forces had barricaded routes to Hasina's office with barbed wire on Monday morning, but huge crowds flooded the streets, tearing down barriers.

tj/wmr (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)