New Delhi: Hours after relinquishing her position as prime minister of Bangladesh and travelling from Dhaka to Delhi, Bangladesh’s leader, Sheikh Hasina, touched down at the Hindon Air Base in Ghaziabad on Monday.
Hasina landed in India on a Bangladesh Air Force military cargo plane just as thousands of demonstrators overran and damaged Dhaka’s formal prime minister’s home, known as “Ganabhaban.”
She was still present at the Hindon air base when this report was filed, indicating that it may not have been a fuel stop and that she might stay longer in India than (was) initially expected. Meanwhile, Britain is reportedly willing to grant asylum to the ousted Bangla Premier.
However, several reports cited that she will be leaving for London soon.
The house of Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal was also reportedly set on fire in Dhanmondi, an upscale area of the Bangladesh capital.
As Hasina left for India, Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman confirmed the news of her resignation and said that an interim government would be formed soon to run the country.
The Army chief also said he will meet President Mohammed Shahabuddin soon to chart the future course of action.
It was reported that over 100 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in the clashes that took place between police and the protesters on Sunday.
“With yesterday’s count, the death toll in anti-government protests crossed 300 in just three weeks, making it the bloodiest period in the history of Bangladesh’s civil movement,” the country’s leading daily ‘The Daily Star’ reported.
The student-led non-cooperation movement has put immense pressure on Prime Minister Hasina’s government over the past weeks.
The students had been protesting against a 30 per cent reservation in government jobs for relatives of freedom fighters who wrested independence for Bangladesh from Pakistan in a bloody civil war in 1971 in which, according to Dhaka officials, three million people were killed in the genocide by Pakistani troops and their supporters.
After the Supreme Court slashed the reservations to 5 percent, student leaders put the protests on hold. Still, the demonstrations flared up again because the students said the government ignored their call to release all their leaders, making PM Hasina’s resignation their primary demand.
The democratically elected Sheikh Hasina government was forced to resign, and the Beleaguered Prime Minister Hasina was reportedly forced to leave the country at a mere 30 minutes’ notice. She took off in a military helicopter and landed in India.
–IANS
