Bangladesh remains in flux as students issue deadline to dissolve Parliament

DHAKA – Bangladesh’s protesting student leaders demanded on Aug 6 that Parliament be dissolved and warned a “strict programme” would be launched if their deadline was not met, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country.

Mr Nahid Islam, one of the key organisers of the student movement against Ms Hasina, said in a video on Facebook with three other leaders that Parliament should be dissolved by 3pm (5pm Singapore time) on Aug 6 and asked “revolutionary students to be ready” if that did not happen.

Bangladesh’s army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman was due to meet student leaders at 2pm Singapore time to discuss the formation of an interim government that is expected to hold elections soon after it takes over.

General Zaman had announced Ms Hasina’s resignation on Aug 5.

It was not immediately clear if the meeting had taken place and if the students’ deadline to dissolve Parliament came after the meeting.

Earlier on Aug 6, some normality returned to the capital Dhaka, although traffic was lighter than usual and few schools reopened – with thin attendance – after closing down in mid-July as protests against quotas in government jobs morphed into a broad campaign against Ms Hasina’s rule.

About 300 people were killed and thousands injured in violence that ripped through the country.

Garment factories, which supply apparel to some of world’s top brands and are a mainstay of the economy, remained closed on Aug 6 and plans to reopen will be announced later, the main garment manufacturers’ association said.

Student leaders, who spearheaded a movement against job quotas that turned into a call for Ms Hasina to resign, said early on Aug 6 that they want a new interim government with Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as its chief adviser.

“Any government other than the one we recommended would not be accepted,” Mr Islam said in a video on Facebook with three other organisers of the student movement. “We wouldn’t accept any army-supported or army-led government.”

Mr Islam added: “We have also had discussions with Muhammad Yunus and he has agreed to take on this responsibility at our invitation.”

Yunus, 84, and his Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for work to lift millions out of poverty by granting tiny loans of under US$100 (S$133) to the rural poor of Bangladesh, but he was indicted by a court in June on charges of embezzlement that he denied.

He is undergoing minor medical procedures in Paris, his press secretary Sabbir Osmani said, but did not immediately comment on the statements from the student leaders.

Yunus told Indian broadcaster Times Now in a recorded interview that Aug 5 marked the “second liberation day” for Bangladesh after its 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

But he said Bangladeshis were angry with neighbour India for allowing Ms Hasina to land there after fleeing Dhaka.

“India is our best friend... People are angry at India because you are supporting the person who destroyed our lives,” Yunus said.

Ms Hasina, 76, landed at a military airfield, Hindon, near Delhi, on Aug 5 after leaving Dhaka, two Indian government officials told Reuters, adding that India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met her there. They did not elaborate on her stay or plans.

India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar addressed a closed-door all-party meeting in Parliament on Aug 6 morning about the crisis in Bangladesh.

“Appreciate the unanimous support and understanding that was extended,” he said on X, without elaborating.

Fresh elections planned

Jubilant crowds stormed unopposed into the opulent grounds of Ms Hasina’s residence after she fled, carrying out looted furniture and TVs.

One man balanced a red-velvet, gilt-edged chair on his head. Another held an armful of vases.

“I call upon the people of Bangladesh to display restraint and calm in the midst of this transitional moment on our democratic path,” Tarique Rahman, the exiled acting chief of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said in a post on X on Aug 6.

“It would defeat the spirit of the revolution... if people decide to take the law into their own hands without due process,” he added.

Gen Zaman said he had held talks with leaders of major political parties – excluding Ms Hasina’s long-ruling Awami League – to discuss the way forward and was due to hold talks with President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

An interim government will hold elections as soon as possible after consulting all parties and stakeholders, President Shahabuddin said in a televised address late on Aug 5.

He also said it was “unanimously decided” to immediately release the opposition BNP chairwoman and Ms Hasina’s nemesis, Khaleda Zia, who was convicted in a graft case in 2018 but moved to a hospital a year later as her health deteriorated. She has denied the charges against her.

A BNP spokesperson said on Aug 5 that Zia, 78, was in hospital and “will clear all charges legally and come out soon”.

Ms Hasina had ruled since winning a decades-long power struggle with Zia in 2009.

The Indian Express newspaper reported that Ms Hasina was taken to a “safe house” after her arrival at Hindon and she was likely to travel to Britain. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. REUTERS