Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned after weeks of violent protests. She also fled after protesters invaded her palace in Dhaka, the nation’s capital on Monday, 5th August 2024.
What You Need To Know
◾️ Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and left Dhaka, the capital, after nearly two months of violent unrest. At least 93 people were killed in the violence, including 14 police officers, according to local media. Thousands have also been injured, including over 1,100 police officers.
◾️ In an address to the nation on Monday, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, until now the Chief of Army Staff, said an interim government would be formed, and that representatives “from all major political parties” have been invited to participate.
◾️ Zaman asked protesters to give the military “some time” and called on them to “stay calm and go back home,” and said there were no plans to introduce a curfew or state of emergency at the moment. Some protest leaders have warned that they would not accept “military rule.”
◾️ Indian media reports suggest Hasina landed in the northeastern Indian city of Agartala after leaving Dhaka.
◾️ The unrest in Bangladesh began in early June, triggered by changes to the country’s quota-based government job recruitment system, but quickly straddled by the opposition into large-scale anti-government demonstrations hailed by Western media as “pro-democracy” protests.
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Serving as PM from 1996-2001 and then again from 2009 on, Sheikh Hasina had a history of strained relations with the United States.
🔸 In April, she blasted US foreign policy misadventures in Muslim-majority countries under the guise of “democratisation.”
🔸 In May, she accused the US of seeking to create a “Christian state” by partitioning pieces of Bangladesh and Myanmar, Hindustan Times reported.
🔸 Hasina also said she had been offered an easy reelection victory in general elections in January in exchange for permission to a foreign power to set up an airbase on St. Martin’s Island in the south of the country. However, the state’s name wasn’t disclosed, according to HT.
Source: Sputnik