DHAKA, Aug 6 — Bangladesh’s protesting student leaders demanded today that Parliament be dissolved and warned of a “strict programme” if their deadline was not met, a day after Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country.
Nahid Islam, a key organiser of the student movement against Hasina, said in a video on Facebook with three other leaders that parliament must be dissolved by 3pm (0900 GMT) today and asked “revolutionary students to be ready” if that did not happen.
Bangladesh’s army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman was due to meet student leaders at 0600 GMT to discuss forming an interim government that is expected to hold elections soon after it takes over. Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation yesterday.
It was not immediately clear if the meeting had taken place and if the students’ deadline to dissolve Parliament came after the meeting.
Earlier today, some normalcy returned to the capital Dhaka, although traffic was lighter than usual and few schools reopened with thin attendance after closing down in mid-July as protests against quotas in government jobs morphed into a broad campaign against Hasina’s rule.
About 300 people were killed and thousands injured in the violence that ripped through the country.
Student leaders, who spearheaded the movement for Hasina to resign, said they want Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as chief adviser to the interim government and a spokesman for Yunus said he has agreed to their demand.
— Reuters
