Bangladesh’s Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus will lead an interim government after mass protests forced longtime prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee, the presidency announced today.
The appointment came quickly after student leaders called on the 84-year-old Yunus credited with lifting millions out of poverty in the South Asian country to lead.
The decision was made in a meeting with President Mohammed Shahabuddin, the heads of the army, navy and air force, and student leaders and Yunus will have the title of chief advisor, as demanded by Haid Islam, one of the leaders of Students Against Discrimination who participated in the meeting.
Hasina, 76, who had been in power since 2009, resigned on Monday as hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Dhaka demanding she stand down, Monday’s events were the culmination of more than a month of unrest, which began as protests against a plan for quotas in government jobs but turned into an anti-Hasina movement.
Hasina, who was accused of rigging January elections and widespread human rights abuses, deployed security forces to quash the protests and Hundreds of people were killed in the crackdown, but the military turned against Hasina on the weekend and she was forced to flee on a helicopter to neighbouring India.
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