Bangladesh slides into chaos: Hasina flees country, army says interim govt to take over
Bangladesh slides into chaos: Hasina flees country, army says interim govt to take over
DHAKA: With Bangladesh descending into chaos, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina surreptitiously fled the country in a military aircraft and landed in India on Monday while the army stepped in to fill the power vacuum, ending one uncertain chapter and opening another in the nation’s restive history.
As the news of Hasina’s departure spread, hundreds broke into her residence, vandalising and looting the interiors, providing dramatic expression to the anti-government protests that have killed more than 100 people in the last two days. At the centre of people's anger is the Hasina government’s controversial quota system reserving 30 per cent jobs for families of veterans who fought the 1971 liberation war.
With volatile crowds taking to the streets -- some clambering on Hasina’s father and Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statue and smashing it with hammers in a lasting image underscoring the fickleness of history -- Army chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman announced that the 76-year-old prime minister has resigned.
