By Ayo Kehinde with Agency Reports
Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and fled the country on Monday afternoon, ending a 15-year rule that has faced violent opposition in recent months.
Hasina’s resignation was officially announced in a televised address by the army chief, Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, adding that an interim government will be formed in the coming weeks.
Weeks of bloody clashes between protesters and Hasina’s security forces intensified this past weekend, with dozens killed on Sunday.
Thousands of protesters had flooded Hasina’s official residence on Monday, calling for her ouster.
According to local Bangladeshi news agencies, Hasina escaped her residence minutes before it was stormed by protesters. She left for India and was accompanied by her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, on a helicopter, local media reported.
Reports say she and her sister have been taken by army helicopter to safety. Hasina’s whereabouts are unclear – she’s thought to be heading to India
Huge crowds of cheering protesters stormed her official residence in the capital Dhaka, despite a curfew and internet clampdown.
At least 90 people were killed on Sunday in clashes between police and protesters, taking the death toll in recent weeks to more than 300
The bloodshed is some of the worst the South Asian country has seen since it came into being in 1971.
The student protest began in July with calls to abolish civil service job quotas, but spiralled into demands for Hasina to quit after over two decades in power.
More than 40% of Bangladeshi citizens aged between 15 and 24 are neither employed nor in education.
This, combined with persistent inflation and other economic woes, has created “an economic tinderbox that was simply waiting for a spark,The leadership created “an economic tinderbox that was simply waiting for a spark,” Lutfey Siddiqi, a visiting professor-in-practice at the London School of Economics,told the BBC.
