DHAKA/COPENHAGEN: Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule ended on Monday as she fled more than a month of deadly protests and the military announced it would form an interim government.
Hasina had sought to quell nationwide protests against her government since early July but she fled after a brutal day of unrest on Sunday in which nearly 100 people were killed.
“We want a corruption-free Bangladesh, where everyone would have the right to express their opinion,” said Monirul Islam, a 27-year-old man among thousands in the streets near the prime minister’s palace.
Bangladesh’s army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a broadcast to the nation on state television Hasina had resigned and the military would form a caretaker government.
“The country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, many people have been killed – it is time to stop the violence,” said Waker, dressed in military fatigues, shortly after jubilant crowds stormed and looted Hasina’s residence.
At least 20 people were killed during violence in the Bangladesh capital on Monday, Bacchu Mia, a police inspector at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, told AFP.
Millions of Bangladeshis took to the streets across the South Asian country, many celebrating peacefully.
Jubilant crowds waved flags, some dancing on top of a tank in the streets, before thousands broke through 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, looting furniture and books while others relaxed on beds.
‘Injustices will be addressed’
However, mobs also attacked the homes of Hasina’s close allies, witnesses told AFP.
Others torched television stations that had backed her rule, set fire to offices of her Awami League and smashed statues of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s independence hero.
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