Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was flown to India in a military helicopter on Monday as hundreds of thousands of protesters demanded she resign amid a deadly anti-government stir, news agency Reuters reported citing local sources.
Thousands of protesters reportedly flooded into the Prime Minister’s official residence in Dhaka after her departure, Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo reported. Speculations are rife that Sheikh Hasina has resigned as PM.
Bangladesh’s army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman is set to address the nation after violent clashes left more than 100 people dead and hundreds more injured. The announcement came as hundreds of student activists took to the streets for a protest march in defiance of a nationwide curfew.
Even as protesters began their “Long March to Dhaka”, the army chief was holding talks with leaders of various political parties, including the ruling Awami League and the opposition BNP, and other stakeholders at the army headquarters.
Top Points
- Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her sister, Sheikh Rehana, left the official residence in Dhaka. According to sources, a military helicopter took off from the Bangabhaban with Sheikh Hasina at 2:30 p.m. local time, reportedly heading for West Bengal.
- Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy urged Bangladesh’s security forces to prevent a forceful takeover. “Your duty is to keep our people safe and our country safe and to uphold the constitution,” he wrote on Facebook. “It means don’t allow any unelected government to come in power for one minute, it is your duty.”Wazed Joy warned that if an unelected government were to seize power, it would undo the country’s progress.
- The clashes broke out on Sunday morning between protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and supporters of the ruling party across various regions of Bangladesh. During the protests, clashes erupted between the police and the students, with security forces firing tear gas shells and stun grenades to disperse the violent mob.
- Amid escalating violence, Bangladesh Railways has suspended all services indefinitely. Garment factories in the country have also been closed indefinitely, news agency Reuters reported.
- According to the Bangladesh police, a total of 14 cops have been killed across the country during the clashes. Out of them, as many as 13 were killed in Sirajganj’s Enayetpur police station, and one was killed in Comilla’s Elliotganj, news agency PTI reported. Meanwhile, over 300 cops have been wounded.
- The protests on Sunday witnessed the participation of unidentified people and activists of right-wing Islami Shashontantra Andolon, who erected barricades on multiple major highways and within the capital city, PTI reported while citing local officials.
- Calling the protestors “terrorists”, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked people to suppress those engaging in “sabotage” across the country in the name of protest.
- The United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk criticised the clashes and stated that the “shocking violence” in Bangladesh must end. Sunday’s violence took the total number of people killed since protests began in early July to at least 300, according to an AFP tally.
- In the wake of the fresh violence in Bangladesh, the Ministry of External Affairs issued an advisory to Indian nationals, asking them to exercise “extreme caution” and restrict their movements. It also asked its citizens to refrain from travelling to Bangladesh until further notice.
- Bangladesh Army, in a statement that did not explicitly say whether they supported the protesters, stated that they stand by the people. Army Chief Waker-uz-Zaman told officers that “the Bangladesh Army is a symbol of the people’s trust” and “it has always stood by the people and will continue to do so for the sake of the people and the state”.
