ISLAMABAD, AUGUST 5: Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has quit her position and left Dhaka in the midst of violent protests. It is said that she is going to India. “She and her sister have left Ganabhaban (the Prime Minister’s official residence) for a safer place,” according to an AFP source.
She and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana left Bangabhaban at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Monday on a military chopper to go to a “safer place.” ANI reported. In the meantime, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been handed a 45-minute ultimatum by the Bangladesh Army to go.
Student organizations’ protests against reserved quotas in government positions last month resulted in at least 150 deaths and thousands more injuries. The current rallies were spearheaded by the organization “Students Against Discrimination,” which spearheaded the employment quota protests last month.
After the Supreme Court eliminated the majority of quotas on July 21, the demonstrations to change the system came to a halt. However, protestors returned last week, calling for Hasina to issue a public apology for the violence, the restoration of internet access, the reopening of college and university campuses, and the release of those who had been detained.
Over the weekend, when protesters sought justice for those slain last month, the rallies turned into a campaign calling for Hasina’s removal. The students’ organization demanded that Hasina step down as part of a one-point national non-cooperation action that will begin on Sunday.
The demonstrators attribute the violence that occurred during the July protests to Hasina’s government. The administration of Hasina has been accused by opponents and human rights organizations of employing disproportionate force against demonstrators; the government refutes these claims.
At first, Hasina, 76, and her administration claimed that students were not engaged in the violence that occurred during the quota demonstrations. Instead, they placed the responsibility for the confrontations and arson on the Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
However, Hasina said that “those who are carrying out violence are not students but terrorists who are out to destabilize the nation” when violence broke out again on Sunday.
