Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, resigned
After weeks of intensifying protests, demonstrators stormed Sheikh Hasina’s mansion in Bangladesh, forcing her to resign and flee from her long-standing reign over the 170 million people in the country.
Protests by students against a job quota system that began last month turned into a larger rebellion against Sheikh Hasina when government supporters and police opened fire on the protesters, killing up to 300 people.
In a televised speech on Monday, Bangladesh Army Chief Waker-Uz-Zaman declared that Sheikh Hasina had resigned and that the military will hold talks with the president and political party members to form a temporary government.
After weeks of intensifying protests, demonstrators stormed Sheikh Hasina’s mansion in Bangladesh, forcing her to resign and flee from her long-standing reign over the 170 million people in the country.
Protests by students against a job quota system that began last month turned into a larger rebellion against Sheikh Hasina when government supporters and police opened fire on the protesters, killing up to 300 people.
In a televised speech on Monday, Bangladesh Army Chief Waker-Uz-Zaman declared that Sheikh Hasina had resigned and that the military will hold talks with the president and political party members to form a temporary government.
In the hours following her resignation, Sheikh Hasina’s whereabouts remained a mystery as local media speculated that she had left for neighboring India. Hasina ruled Bangladesh for a total of twenty years.
“People feel comforted. Many common people sacrificed their lives for this cause, according to Zillur Rahman, executive director of the Centre for Governance Studies, a think tank located in Dhaka. However, he issued a warning that “someone” might still “hijack” the protestors’ win. He remarked, “We are not sure about the upcoming days or months.”
Bangladesh has a history of military takeovers and coups; the most recent one occurred in 2007–2008, when the country was governed by a caretaker government supported by the military.
Once among the poorest nations on earth, it is now the second-largest exporter of clothing worldwide and a vital hub for low-cost production for western companies like Walmart, Primark, and H&M.
As a result, Sheikh Hasina was able to enjoy her position as a significant geopolitical and economic ally of nations ranging from the US and Europe to China and India.
Prior to her return to government in 2009, she had held the position of longest-serving female leader in history, having assumed power in the 1990s. Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of Bangladesh’s independence movement who was slain.
Nonetheless, growing authoritarianism, corruption, and violations of human rights characterized her reign. Earlier this year, following the arrest of thousands of members of the main opposition party, who abstained from voting, she was re-elected to a fifth term.
Public protests persisted even after the supreme court last month softened the job quota plan, which allocated a third of government posts for veterans’ ancestors from the nation’s 1971 independence war with Pakistan.
Over the course of the last weekend, protesters and members of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party battled, resulting in around 100 deaths. Declaring the demonstrators to be “terrorists,” she gave the military orders to impose a curfew.
The economic impact of the weeks-long protests in Bangladesh was enormous, causing apparel manufacturers to close and postponing orders for international companies.
The largest economy in South Asia, India, whose leader Narendra Modi viewed Sheikh Hasina as a vital ally and bulwark against Islamism in the area, could suffer from her resignation.
The loss of the once-dominant leader will create a void in Bangladeshi politics. The demonstrators from the student body demanded an end to the nation’s dynastic politics, which have been dominated for the past 50 years by the Awami League and the rival Bangladesh Nationalist party, who have alternated in power frequently.
Sayem Faruk, an entrepreneur who participated in the demonstrations on Monday, described it as a “fork in the road” for Bangladesh. “We shall do our best to uphold our new moral attitude as a nation. Politicians such as them will never again be allowed to rule.”
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