Bangladesh’s protesting students leaders demanded on Tuesday that parliament be dissolved and warned of a “strict programme” if their deadline was not met, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country.
Nahid Islam, one of the key organisers of the student movement against Hasina, said in a video on Facebook with three other leaders that parliament should be dissolved by 3 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Tuesday and asked “revolutionary students to be ready” if that did not happen
Bangladesh’s army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman was due to meet student leaders at 0600 GMT to discuss the formation of an interim government that is expected to hold elections soon after it takes over. Zaman had announced Hasina’s resignation on Monday
It was not immediately clear if the meeting had taken place and if the students’ deadline to dissolve parliament came after the meeting.
Earlier on Tuesday, some normalcy returned to the capital Dhaka, although traffic was lighter than usual and few schools reopened with thin attendance after closing down in mid-July as protests against quotas in government jobs morphed into a broad campaign against Hasina’s rule.
About 300 people were killed and thousands injured in the violence that ripped through the country.
Student leaders, who spearheaded the movement for Hasina to resign, said they want Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government and a spokesperson for Yunus said he has agreed to their demand.
