Demand for Nobel winner to lead Bangladesh rebuild

Jubilation turned to anxiety in Bangladesh yesterday as the focus of student protesters turned to who should lead the country, now that authoritarian prime minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled to neighbouring India.

- SHWETA SHARMA

Ms Hasina, 76, who had governed the country for more than two decades across four terms, dramatically stepped down on Monday afternoon after violent protests over a contentious job quota scheme swelled into a popular uprising.

The army chief who announced Ms Hasina’s resignation, General Waker-uz-Zaman, said the army would be involved in talks to form an interim government with the president, Mohammed Shahabuddin, who formally dissolved parliament yesterday afternoon. But the coordinators of Students Against Discrimination, the main student body that led the protests starting in June, have said they will take to the streets again if a new government is formed without their input and with excessive inputs from the army.

In a video message, the student body called for Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist and long-time critic of Ms Hasina, to be named as the chief adviser to any interim administration. Nahid Islam, the organiser, said student protest leaders have already talked with Mr Yunus, who consented to take over considering the present situation of the country.

One protester, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals from the security forces, told The Independent that they are now “worried for the future of Bangladesh” as they fear that the interim government could be hijacked by political opportunists.

“We are trying our best to maintain our sovereignty. We are worried that the government that would be formed would be right for us or not and currently the students’ coordinators are thinking about every possible member of that interim government,” she said on the phone from Dhaka.

“We are worried about the agendas and propaganda of some elements amid the political vacuum here. The students have taken up positions to protect minorities, after there were reports that some people of Hindu minorities have been attacked.”