The Impressive TimesDhaka, August 5, 2024: An army coup in Bangladesh on Monday forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down and leave the country amid escalating quota protests that threatened her life. Media reports suggest that Hasina might have sought refuge in India.
The nation’s Army Chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, to whom the 76-year-old Prime Minister submitted her resignation, announced the formation of an interim government. “After holding fruitful discussions with all political parties, we have decided to form an interim government. We will speak with President Mohammed Shahabuddin now to resolve the situation,” the Army Chief was quoted as saying by the *Dhaka Tribune*.
General Zaman called for an end to all violence in the name of protest and promised that the new government would ensure justice for all deaths that occurred during the Anti-Discriminatory Student Movement.
Hasina’s resignation followed a 45-minute ultimatum from the Army Chief, a day after clashes killed nearly 100 people nationwide. On Monday, protesters stormed the Prime Minister’s official residence, Gono Bhaban, shouting slogans and waving flags.
The Prime Minister departed from her residence on Monday afternoon on a military helicopter for an undisclosed location, accompanied by her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, as they left for a “safer place,” according to *The Dhaka Tribune*. According to the reports Hasina left the country after submitting her resignation to the Army Chief.
Hasina took office for her fourth consecutive term in January after her Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party won a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections. The quota unrest began in June 2024 when the High Court reinstated a 30% quota for the descendants of freedom fighters from the 1971 war of independence, reversing a 2018 decision that had abolished such quotas. Over 300 people have died in the unrest, making it one of the deadliest periods of civil unrest in Bangladesh’s history.
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