Bangladesh protests updates: Parliament dissolved after Hasina resignation

You can read our up-to-date news story on the events in Bangladesh here and our piece looking at what’s next here.

You can also take a look at our timeline, looking back at PM Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure, here.

Or you can read our feature here on how labelling the student protesters the word “Razakar”, which means volunteer, proved to be a critical misstep by the former prime minister.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a quick recap:

• Student leaders, politicians, members of civil society, the president and the army chief have met and decided to dissolve the Parliament.
• The Bangladesh National Party announced that Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister and leader of the party, has been released from years of house arrest.
• Student leaders in Bangladesh say they want Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government.
• Yunus has responded to those calls, telling AFP, “If action is needed in Bangladesh, for my country and for the courage of my people, then I will take it.”
• The Bangladesh police association has issued a statement saying its members are going on strike.
• Our correspondent in Dhaka reports that, in the absence of police, students are forming vigilante groups and controlling the capital’s congested streets.
• A spokesperson for the International Monetary Fund says it remains “fully committed to Bangladesh and its people and support efforts to ensure economic stability and deliver inclusive growth”.

Smriti Singh, regional director for South Asia at Amnesty International, says measures taken to move the country forward after the protests “need to be rooted in the principles of justice, accountability and non-recurrence”.

“The human rights violations in the last three weeks that have led to the death of more than 300 people, with thousands injured and arbitrarily arrested, should be independently and impartially investigated in a transparent manner,” she said in a statement, adding that those responsible need to be held accountable.

“It’s an opportune moment for any new interim government in Bangladesh to show solidarity with its people, protect the most vulnerable and not repeat the mistakes of the past,” she said.

Here are a few highlights of the pieces we’ve published about the events in Bangladesh over the past day:

Explainer: Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina forced to resign – What happened and what’s next?

Opinion: The victory of Bangladesh’s student movement should not surprise anyone

In-depth: Sheikh Hasina – A critical misstep and the end of 15 years ruling Bangladesh

Listen: Inside Bangladesh’s political earthquake

And there’s plenty more here.

A spokesperson for the International Monetary Fund says it remains “fully committed to Bangladesh and its people and support efforts to ensure economic stability and deliver inclusive growth”.

According to emerging market experts Tellimer, long-term lending from multilateral institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and the Asia Development Bank amounts to roughly a quarter of Bangladesh’s GDP, making their continued backing key to the country’s economy.

The IMF, which approved a $4.7bn loan programme with the country in January 2023, said it was following developments and “deeply saddened by loss of lives and injuries”.

On Monday, the World Bank, which had total commitments of $2.85bn in the year to June 30, said it was still assessing the impact of the events on its lending, but remained committed to Bangladesh’s development.

Multilateral lenders will be closely watching the next steps taken by the government and the military.

“A military coup, in legal terms, would put at risk fresh external sovereign debt from multilaterals,” Hasnain Malik of Tellimer said.

A small boat packed with refugees fleeing war-torn Myanmar sunk while crossing a river to Bangladesh, resulting in at least 10 drownings, including young children, a local councillor said.

Bangladesh is home to around one million Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled Myanmar’s Rakhine in 2017 after a military crackdown and are now the subject of a genocide investigation at a United Nations court.

Adnan Chowdhury, the government administrator of Bangladesh’s Teknaf border town, said the boat was carrying about 29 Muslim Rohingya people from Myanmar.

“So far we’ve recovered 10 bodies, they are all Rohingya,” Rashid Mia, a councillor in Teknaf, told AFP. “Several people swam ashore”.

But several people were also missing, Mia added.

Police said the group had fled their villages in Myanmar’s war-torn Rakhine state and the small craft sank in the Naf river.

Nobel winner Muhammad Yunus says he is ready to head an interim government in Bangladesh after mass demonstrations forced longtime ruler Sheikh Hasina to flee the country.

“I am honoured by the trust of the protesters who wish for me to lead the interim government,” he said in a written statement to AFP.

“If action is needed in Bangladesh, for my country and for the courage of my people, then I will take it,” he said, also calling for “free elections.”

Here are some of the main developments over the past day:

• Student leaders, politicians, members of civil society, the president and the army chief have met and decided to dissolve the Parliament.
• The Bangladesh National Party say Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister and leader of the party, has been released from years of house arrest.
• Student leaders in Bangladesh say they want Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government while a spokesperson for Yunus said he has agreed to their demand.
• The Bangladesh police association has issued a statement saying its members are going on strike.
• Our correspondent in Dhaka reports that, in the absence of police, students are forming vigilante groups and controlling the capital’s congested streets.

Businesses are operating, and shops are open, but people are apprehensive and also very tense because there have been a lot of vigilantes destroying properties of former governing party members.

Hotels were burned, and many people were killed out of revenge, and this is why the students are coming out in the streets and declaring openly that this has to stop.

The students have actually been managing the traffic and guarding property, saying this is our property, taxpayers’ property; we cannot destroy it.

This has been a concern because the police have been off the street; they have become the sort of enemy of the crowd.

The police are backtracking and have made their demands on coming out for duty, so the army is patrolling, and the students are helping.

The situation is much better now, but people are still concerned; without police and law enforcement agencies, things could get worse because certain groups of people want to vandalise and take revenge.

Our video team has collated some of the most memorable moments from Monday when Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country:

Our correspondent in Dhaka reports that students are forming vigilante groups and controlling the congested streets of the capital, the seventh-most densely populated city in the world, after the police went on strike.

China’s Foreign Ministry says it is following the events in Bangladesh “closely”.

“As a friendly neighbour and comprehensive strategic cooperative partner of Bangladesh, China sincerely hopes that social stability will be restored soon in the country,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement on its website.

Muhammad Yunus is a global personality – a pioneer for microfinance and microcredit.

He is also the pioneer of a global social model business concept and he’s very well respected in the country, and globally.

The students proposed his name as the chief of the interim government, and they spoke with him.

He wasn’t willing at first, but the students persuaded him, and he’ll be very well accepted.

If this goes ahead, he’ll eventually come to Bangladesh, as he is in Paris right now.

But we still have to wait for the process between the political parties, the military and the state to be completed.

Shahabuddin, the president of Bangladesh since April 2023, has been the country’s sole top constitutional authority since Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled to India on Monday.

On Tuesday, Shahabuddin dissolved parliament, paving the way for the formation of an interim government and new elections.

Here are some facts about Shahabuddin:

• He was born in 1949 in Pabna, in what was East Pakistan before it won independence and Bangladesh was born. As a student, he actively participated in the fight for independence from Pakistan in 1971.
• Independence leader and Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, made Shahabuddin a district joint secretary in the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League, a political front of farmers and workers that included the Awami League party, in 1975.
• Shahabuddin spent three years in jail after Rahman’s assassination in 1975.
• A former district judge, Shahabuddin, headed an investigation panel that probed violence against Awami League members and supporters when the party was in the opposition.
• With Hasina as prime minister, Shahabuddin was elected unopposed as the country’s president.

We’re still waiting to hear when the interim government will be formed.

The students are putting pressure on the military, and the president and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary-general said that it should be announced today.

He’s also putting pressure on the military and president to announce the interim government by today.

They put forward a list of names, and they say they will be back on the street unless their demands are met. They don’t want any old political faces or the military to make up the government.

There is a lot of pressure on the army as law and order have deteriorated since yesterday; the students themselves are acting as vigilantes controlling traffic. The police are nowhere to be seen.

The situation remains volatile, as the military has also been reshuffled within the last couple of hours; at least five generals were put into retirement.

People are anxious. They want this to come to an end and for life to continue as normal.

EU heads of mission in Dhaka say they “are very concerned about incoming reports of multiple attacks against places of worship and members of religious, ethnic and other minorities in Bangladesh”, EU Ambassador to Bangladesh Charles Whiteley posted on X.

pic.twitter.com/XghgkgUdCE

— European Union in Bangladesh (@EUinBangladesh) August 6, 2024

Protests broke out at university campuses in June after the High Court reinstated a quota system for government jobs which favoured relatives of veterans of Bangladesh’s war of independence.

The ruling overturned a 2018 decision by Hasina’s government to scrap it.

The Supreme Court suspended the High Court order after the government’s appeal and then dismissed its order last month, directing that 93 percent of jobs should be open to candidates on merit.

It also ordered that the quota for veterans’ descendants be cut to 5 percent, with the remaining 2 percent set aside for members of ethnic minorities and transgender and disabled people.