*Pix above: PBAT
Tinubu’s greatest fear for cracking down on Nigerian protesters happened on Monday in Bangladesh… as Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flees Presidential Palace amidst massive protest, while military took over government.
Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule as Bangladesh’s prime minister ended Monday as she fled after more than a month of deadly protests and the military announced it would form an interim government.
Hasina had sought to quell nationwide protests against her government since early July but she fled the country after brutal unrest on Sunday in which nearly 100 people were killed, AFP reports.
“We want a corruption-free Bangladesh, where everyone would have the right to express their opinion,” said 27-year-old Monirul Islam, who is among hundreds of thousands celebrating in the streets in the capital Dhaka.
Bangladesh’s army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a broadcast to the nation on state television that Hasina had resigned and the military would form a caretaker government.
“The country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, many people have been killed – it is time to stop the violence,” said Waker, shortly after jubilant crowds stormed and looted Hasina’s official residence.
At least 66 people were killed on Monday, police said, adding that gangs had launched revenge attacks on Hasina’s allies. Many were shot.
Millions of Bangladeshis took to the streets across the South Asian country.
Jubilant crowds waved flags, some dancing on top of a tank, before thousands broke through the gates of Hasina’s residence. Others later stormed parliament.
Bangladesh’s Channel 24 broadcast images of crowds running into the prime minister’s compound, grinning and waving to the camera, looting furniture and books, or relaxing on beds.
Mobs also raided and ransacked the homes of Hasina’s Awami League party allies as well as police stations, witnesses told AFP.
“The homes and businesses of pro-Awami League people have been attacked,” a senior police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity, and calling the violence “mob rule.”
Others torched television stations that had backed Hasina’s rule, smashed statues of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s independence hero, and set fire to a museum dedicated to him.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged calm in Bangladesh and highlighted the need for a “peaceful, orderly and democratic transition,” his spokesman said.
The United States called on Monday for calm and saluted the military for forming an interim government instead of cracking down further on protesters.
“We urge all parties to refrain from further violence. Too many lives have been lost over the course of the past several weeks, and we urge calm and restraint in the days ahead,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
In Tinubu’s circumstance, he just read a nationwide broadcast on Sunday morning, reeling out his ‘achievements’ so far, and promising that more will come – instead of addressing the protesters’ request of returning oil subsidy, quelling hunger in the land and evolving good governance./(Agency)/###
