Bangladesh’s elderly leader Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday and has allegedly fled the country, after weeks of massive and deadly protests in Dhaka.
Hasina, 76, who held power since 2009 was reported by the BBC to have fled in a helicopter to Agartala, the capital of India’s northeastern state of Tripura.
Army chief General Waker-Us-Zaman said in a televised address that Hasina had left the country and that an interim government would be formed.
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Reuters said that more people were killed in some of the worst violence since the birth of the South Asian nation more than five decades ago.
Media said she had flown in a military helicopter with her sister to India. Later, CNN News 18 TV channel said Hasina had landed in Agartala.
Television visuals showed thousands of people pouring into the streets of the capital Dhaka in jubilation and shouting slogans. Thousands also stormed Hasina’s official residence ‘Ganabhaban’, shouting slogans, pumping fists and showing victory signs.
Television visuals showed crowds in the drawing rooms of the residence, and some people could be seen carrying away televisions, chairs and tables from what was one of the most protected buildings in the country.
“She has fled the country, fled the country,” some shouted.
Protesters in Dhaka also climbed atop a large statue of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father, and began chiselling away at the head with an axe, the visuals showed.
Student activists had called for a march to the capital Dhaka on Monday in defiance of a nationwide curfew to press Hasina to resign, a day after deadly clashes across the country killed nearly 100 people. About 150 people were killed in protests last month.
On Monday, at least six people were killed in clashes between police and protesters in the Jatrabari and Dhaka Medical College areas on Monday, the Daily Star newspaper reported. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Bangladesh has been engulfed by protests and violence that began last month after student groups demanded scrapping of a controversial quota system in government jobs.
That escalated into a campaign to seek the ouster of Hasina, who won a fourth straight term in January in an election boycotted by the opposition.
- Jim Pollard with Reuters
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