DHAKA: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus was named chief adviser to Bangladesh's interim government on Tuesday, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following a violent crackdown on a student-led uprising.
Yunus was appointed to the post by Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin after he held a meeting with student leaders and the chiefs of the three military services, local media reported late Tuesday, citing a statement and officials from the president's office.
Yunus, 84, and his Grameen Bank, a microcredit organization, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for work to lift millions of people out of poverty by providing small loans of up to $100 to poor rural Bangladeshis.
The student leaders said they wanted Yunus as a top adviser to the interim government, and Yunus's spokesman said he agreed. Yunus is in Paris for a medical procedure and is expected to return to Dhaka soon.
There was no immediate comment from his side in response to the appointment. It was also not immediately known when the interim government would take over.
Earlier on Tuesday, Shahabuddin dissolved parliament, paving the way for a caretaker government and fresh elections.
His office also announced that opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister who feuded with Hasina for decades, had been released from house arrest.
Student protesters have threatened more demonstrations if parliament is not dissolved.
Shahabuddin had earlier said that the caretaker government would hold elections soon after assuming power. Nahid Islam, a key organizer of the campaign against Hasina, said in a video message: “No government other than the one we recommended would be accepted.
The movement that ousted Hasina grew out of demonstrations against public sector job quotas for families of veterans of Bangladesh's 1971 independence war, which critics see as a means of reserving jobs for allies of the ruling party.
About 300 people have been killed and thousands injured in the violence that has gripped the country since July.
After protesters stormed and ransacked the prime minister's lavish residence on Monday, the streets of the capital Dhaka were calm again on Tuesday, with traffic lighter than usual and many schools and businesses that closed during the unrest still closed.
Garment factories that supply clothes to some of the world's leading brands and are a mainstay of the economy will reopen on Wednesday after being closed due to outages, the main garment manufacturers' association said.
Hasina's escape ended her 15-year second stint in power in the country of 170 million people, which she ruled for 20 of the past 30 years at the head of a political movement inherited from her father, state founder Mujibur Rahman, after he was assassinated in 1975.
Since the early 1990s, Hasina has led and alternated power with her rival Zia, who inherited her own political movement from her husband Ziaur Rahman, the ruler who was assassinated in 1981.
SECOND DAY OF LIBERATION
Yunus, who was indicted by a court in June on embezzlement charges he denies, told India's Times Now that Monday marked Bangladesh's “second day of liberation” after the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
But, according to him, the Bangladeshis were angry with neighboring India for allowing Hasina to land there after fleeing from Dhaka.
“India is our best friend… people are angry with India because you are supporting a person who has destroyed our lives,” Yunus said.
The protests against Hasina were partly fueled by poverty. After years of strong economic growth as the garment industry expanded, the $450 billion economy struggled with costly imports and inflation, and the government sought financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund.
Hasina has been accused of becoming increasingly authoritarian, with many of her political enemies imprisoned. Her resignation was greeted by jubilant mobs who stormed the lavish grounds of her mansion unopposed and carried away furniture and televisions after she fled on Monday.
Hasina flew to India and lives in a safe house outside Delhi. Indian media said Hasina may travel to Britain, where she has family, including a niece who is a cabinet minister.
Reuters could not confirm her plans. The British Home Office declined to comment.
Student leaders said they had received reports of attacks on minority groups including Hindu temples in the Muslim-majority country and called for restraint.
Hundreds of Hindu homes, businesses and temples have been destroyed since Hasina's ouster, a community association said on Tuesday. India said it was concerned about the incidents.
Reuters could not verify the extent of the reported incidents, and police did not respond to calls for comment.
Hindus make up about eight percent of Bangladesh's 170 million people and have historically largely supported Hasina's Awami League party, which identifies as largely secular, over the opposition bloc, which includes a hard-line Islamist party.
