Forbes StaffBangladesh’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, left the country on Monday morning after weeks of student-led protests nationwide.
It is reported that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed resigned and left the country on Monday morning after weeks of student-led protests that have caused nationwide unrest. Today, August 5, Sheikh Hasina fled in a helicopter to India, as reports suggest, as thousands of protestors stormed her official residence in Dhaka, the capital city.
Bangladesh Prime Minister resigns.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigns and flees the country as protestors storm her palace. The 76-year-old submitted her resignation and fled the country in a helicopter, as confirmed by army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman. It is said that an interim government will take over power. This has brought an end to the reign of the longest-standing PM of Bangladesh. Though she was credited for overseeing the South Asian country’s economic progress, she, in recent years, was also accused of turning autocratic.
Controversies surrounding Sheikh Hasina.
The latest protests in Bangladesh posed a serious challenge in her career since taking office. They followed a highly controversial election in which her party was re-elected for the fourth straight parliamentary term. She would receive increasing calls, pressurizing her to file her resignation, but she remained defiant and went on to condemn the agitators as “terrorists” while appealing to others to “suppress these terrorists with a firm hand.”
The unrest in Dhaka began with a demand to abolish quotas for civil service jobs, which later turned into a broader anti-government movement. During the pandemic, Bangladesh suffered from an escalated cost of living, with inflation sky-high, foreign exchange reserves dropped, and foreign debt doubled since 2016. Critics blamed Sheikh Hasina for the government’s mismanagement, saying that the previous economic success only helped those close to her party, Awami League, due to endemic corruption.
Cases of arrests of BNP senior leaders and thousands of supporters following the anti-government protests increased in recent months. Right groups also raised concerns about hundreds of alleged enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings by security forces since 2009; however, Sheikh Hasina’s government denied all such allegations behind such abuses.
