Bangladesh: Sheikh Hasina Quits, Flees Country Amid Escalating Anti-Govt Protests

New Delhi: Amid escalation in massive anti-government protests in Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is reported to have quit and fled the country, according to media reports.

According to Al Jazeera,  addressing the nation on Monday, General Waker-uz-Zaman, said that an interim government would now run the country. Hasina is said to have boarded a military helicopter, according to an aide who told Al Jazeera, “after crowds ignored a national curfew to storm her palace in Dhaka.”

“We will also ensure that justice is served for every death and crime that occurred during the protests,” he said, calling on the public to exercise patience and cease any acts of violence and vandalism.

“We have invited representatives from all major political parties, and they have accepted our invitation and committed to collaborating with us,” Gen Zaman said in his address.

Hasina, the leader of Awami League, had been ruling over India’s neigbouring country for over two decades now. The protests, which began by students and youth against job quota for descendants of freedom fighters or “muktijodhhas’ spread across sections amid growing unemployment, economic crisis and corruption charges against the government.

The ongoing protests have so far led to about 300 lives lost, of which close to 100 died on Sunday after violence, escalating tension throughout the country. Of these, 14 are said to have been police officer. There have been also been reports of a massive crackdown on the protesters, telecommunication and internet shutdowns etc.

 The protests that begun as peaceful student protests against the job quota order, which was later overturned by the country’s top court, later moved beyond the issue, drawing all sections of the society amid simmering anger against the  Awami League government’s economic mismanagement, the “stolen” elections, thousands of arrests of protesters, as well police cases against hundreds.

According to Times of India, the Border Security Force (BSF) had also issued a “high alert” to all its units stationed alongside the over 4,000km border with Bangladesh, as per an official.

Meanwhile, Hindustan Times, quoting ANI, said Hasina’s plane had landed in Agartala in Tripura and was headed to New Delhi. Security has been tightened near the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, the report said.

However, when asked if the deposed Bangladesh PM would stay in India, former Foreign Secretary and ex-Ambassador to Bangladesh, Harsh Vardhan Shringla told HT, “It is difficult for me to say. Keep in mind that Sheikh Hasina was here right from 1975 till about 1979 or so when she went back to her country after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman - her father. India has never denied safe haven or asylum to those who have been in our neighbourhood. But my own sense is that there are many other places that the PM may go...We cannot speculate at this point.”