Bangladesh Waits on Army Chief for Interim Government After PM Flees

DHAKA, Aug 6 (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s army chief will meet student protest leaders on Tuesday as the country awaits the formation of a new government a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled following a violent uprising against her.

Traffic was lighter than usual in the usually chaotic streets of Dhaka and schools reopened with thin attendance after closing down in mid-July as protests against quotas in government jobs spiralled. About 300 people were killed and thousands injured in violence that ripped through the country.

Garment factories, which supply apparel to some of world’s top brands and are a mainstay of the economy, will remain closed on Tuesday and plans to reopen will be announced later, the main garment manufacturers association said.

Student leaders, who spearheaded the anti-quota movement that turned into a call for Hasina to resign, said early on Tuesday they want Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government.

“Any government other than the one we recommended would not be accepted,” Nahid Islam, one of the key organisers of the student movement, said in a video on Facebook with three other organisers. “We wouldn’t accept any army-supported or army-led government.”

“We have also had discussions with Muhammad Yunus and he has agreed to take on this responsibility at our invitation,” Islam added.

Yunus, 84, and his Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace prize for work to lift millions out of poverty by granting tiny loans of under $100 to the rural poor of Bangladesh but he was indicted by a court in June on charges of embezzlement that he denied.

Yunus is undergoing minor medical procedures in Paris, his press secretary Sabbir Osmani said, but did not immediately comment on the statements from the student leaders.

The Nobel laureate told Indian broadcaster Times Now in a recorded interview that Monday marked the “second liberation day” for Bangladesh after its 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

But he said Bangladeshis were angry with neighbour India for allowing Hasina to land there after fleeing Dhaka.