Dhaka, Aug 5 (UNI) An Army coup in troubled Bangladesh on Monday forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down and leave the country amid deadly quota protests that reached her official residence in the morning posing a threat to her life, said media reports, hinting that she might have taken refuge in India.
The protest-hit nation’s Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, to whom the 76-year-old PM submitted her resignation, has announced the formation of interim government, reports said.
“After holding a fruitful discussion with all political parties, we have decided to form an interim government. We will speak with President Mohammed Shahabuddin now to resolve the situation,” the Army chief was quoted as saying in the Dhaka Tribue.
He called for a halt to all violence in the name of protest and promised that the new government will ensure justice for all the deaths that took place during the Anti-Discriminatory Student Movement, it said.
Hasina’s forced exile followed a 45-minute ultimatum given to her by the Army chief, a day after clashes killed nearly 100 people across the country, said media reports.
On Monday, protesters stormed the PM’s official residence, Gono Bhaban, shouting slogans and waving flags, media reports said.
The PM, departed from her residence on Monday afternoon on a military helicopter for an undisclosed destination, The Dhaka Tribune reported.
She was accompanied by her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, as they left for a “safer place”, the report said.
Somoy News TV claimed Sheikh Hasina left the country after submitting her resignation to the country’s Army Chief.
Hasina, took office for her fourth straight five-year term as the country’s Prime Minister in January this year after her ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party won a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections.
Over 300 people have died in the unrest, making this one of the deadliest periods of civil unrest in Bangladesh’s history, said media reports.
The quota unrest began in June 2024 when the High Court reinstated a 30 per cent quota for the descendants of freedom fighters from the 1971 war of independence, reversing a 2018 decision that had abolished such quotas.
