Sheikh Hasina resigns as Bangladesh PM, flees country: Who will run the country now?

After being at the receiving end of protests and slogans such as “One, two, three, four, Sheikh Hasina is a dictator”, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given in and resigned from her post.

The 76-year-old, who has ruled the South Asian nation of 170 million with an iron fist since 2009, has resigned and has fled the nation. Reports say that she is enroute to India.

As turmoil unfolds in India’s neighbourhood, here’s a recap of what happened so far and what could come next.

Sunday protests

The tipping point to Hasina’s ouster came on Sunday when close to 100 people died during protests , as demonstrators demanded for Sheikh Hasina’s ouster. The protesters blamed Hasina’s administration for the violence and untold deaths — over 300 — during the protests in July against the jobs quota . They have accused her government of using excessive force against protesters, a charge the government denies.

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Earlier on, Sheikh Hasina was defiant of the protesters — she condemned the agitators as “terrorists”. The country’s Law Minister Anisul Huq also told the BBC that calls for her resignation were “unjustified” and the protesters were reacting “emotionally”.

Her government then ordered for a curfew, beginning 6 pm on Sunday, and also ordered for the shutdown of 4G services across the country. The government also ordered the shutdown of Meta platforms Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Moreover, the government called for three days’ general holiday on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in a move to bring back peace and stability across the country.

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Protesters go on rampage

Despite a curfew, protesters refused to budge and carried out their long march march to Dhaka, with one single demand: Hasina’s resignation.

On Monday, a sea of protesters, under the banner of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, began marching towards Hasina’s official residence, Ganabhaban. Soon, protesters stormed her palace in Dhaka with visuals showing jubilant crowds waving flags, some dancing on top of a tank after they broke the gates of Hasina’s official residence.

Bangladesh’s Channel 24 broadcast images of crowds running into the compound, waving to the camera as they celebrated. AFP also reported that others smashed a statues of Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahma, the country’s independence hero.

Residence of Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina.

The same happened in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Left Ecosystem wants this to happen in India. pic.twitter.com/amkmZSnD4Y

— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) August 5, 2024

In the meantime, Hasina and her sister, Sheikh Rehana, fled the nation with one source telling AFP: “Her security team asked her to leave, she did not find any time to prepare.” Some reports said that the Bangladesh Army gave an ultimatum of 45 minutes to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign from her post.

The source added to AFP that she left first by motorcade but then was flown out, without saying her destination. “She was later evacuated on a helicopter.” While there is no confirmation on Hasina’s whereabouts, reports say that she has made her way to India, with some reporting that she has landed in India’s northeastern state of Tripura.

Bangladeshi daily, Prothom Alo, also reported that protesters vandalised the residence of Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal in Dhanmondi of the capital. Furthermore, the agitators set fire to the office of Awami League President Sheikh Hasina at 3/A in Dhanmondi.

Future tense

Shortly after reports broke of Hasina fleeing the country, Bangladesh’s army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman held a press conference in which he announced that he would “form an interim government”. Dressed in military fatigues, he said: “I am taking full responsibility”. Although it is not immediately clear if he will head a caretaker government.

News agency AFP quoted him as saying: “The country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, many people have been killed — it is time to stop the violence.”

“I hope after my speech, the situation will improve.”

He added, as per Prothom Alo, that he had held a meeting with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami. Teachers Afis Nazrul and Jonaid Saki were also present in the meeting, he said. Notably, no representative from Hasina’s Awami League was part of the meeting with the army chief, an indication that the next government would keep out Hasina and her party from power.

In his address to the nation, the army chief requested students to “keep calm and go home”, saying that “if the situation gets better, there is no need for emergency”. “Now the task of the students is to keep calm and help us,” he further added.

Waker-Uz-Zaman also vowed “justice” for all Bangladeshis — something protesters have been demanding following the deaths of hundreds of people over the last few weeks. He said the army would investigate all the killings that have taken place in the country in the last few weeks.

Hasina’s ouster from power comes just months after she was elected for a fourth consecutive term in a January vote that was boycotted by her main opponents. Thousands of opposition members had been jailed in the lead-up to the polls. Before her resignation, Today, she held the record of being the longest-serving leader in the history of Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim nation of over 160 million people strategically located between India and Myanmar.

With inputs from agencies