Bangladesh’s interim government leader Muhammad Yunus has praised the students whose protests led to the end of Sheikh Hasina’s rule in the country and her departure from the country. “Without a doubt… the student-led revolution brought down the entire government,” he said at a news conference on Sunday after meeting the students. Highlighting the conversation he had with them, Yunus said: “I told the students, ‘I respect and admire you… What you have achieved is truly unparalleled… and since you have asked me to take charge of the interim administration, I accept.”
He described Sheikh Hasina, who left the country after resigning and is now living safely in India, as a “monster”.
“Finally, the time has come: the monster is gone,” he said, without naming Hasina’s departure from the country, which marked the end of what the opposition in the country called an autocratic government that silenced all dissent.
Yusuf on recent resignations
He said high-profile resignations of officials close to ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are legal after student leaders who organised protests against Hasina’s government issued ultimatums for them to step down.
“Legally… all measures have been taken,” Yunus said. He said a key priority of the interim government was to restore the independence of the judiciary. He called former Supreme Court Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan “just an executioner.”
Syed Refaat Ahmed was appointed as the new chief justice of the Supreme Court on Sunday after his name was proposed by student protest leaders. More than 300 people, including students and police officers, have been killed in the weeks of violence.
Yunus had long been a critic of Hasina and her government.
Yunus fell out with Hasina in 2008 when her administration launched a series of investigations into him and his Grameen bank. He was put on trial in 2013 on charges of receiving money without government permission, including his Nobel Prize and royalties from a book.
Yunus has denied the allegations and his supporters say he was targeted because of his frosty relations with Hasina.
(With contributions from agencies)
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