Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina fled to India on Monday, shortly after resigning from her post following weeks of unrest in the South Asian country, which left nearly 100 people dead in fighting over the weekend.
Hasina arrived at Hindon Airbase in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Monday, according to Indian media. She was greeted by India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval at the air base during a meeting televised by local media.
The resignation follows a dramatic escalation in anti-government protests over the weekend, with demonstrators demanding Hasina step down. A top local newspaper reported that at least 95 people, including 14 police officers, were killed in the protests, according to The Associated Press. Channel 24 reported that at least 85 people were killed.
Last month’s demonstrations resulted in more than 200 dead after students took to the streets to demand an end to the quota system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence, AP reported.
The government on Sunday declared a holiday from Monday to Wednesday and said mobile internet service would be cut off. Hasina called the protest wave “sabotage” and the participants criminals, AP reported.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has not yet publicly commented on the development. On Sunday, a spokesperson for the ministry “strongly” advised against travel to Bangladesh until further notice.
Hasina has worked closely with Indian political leaders, who saw her rise to power and eventual premiership as a way to keep radical Islamist groups out of power.
Sheikh Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, became the first president of Bangladesh after India joined the struggle for independence from Pakistan in 1971.
After her father’s assassination, Hasina lived in exile in India before returning to Bangladesh, where she became the country’s prime minister in the 1980s.
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