The protest organizers have nominated a Nobel Prize winner Mohammed Yunus as head of an interim government to be formed after Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India following weeks of violent protests.
Nahid Islam, one of the main coordinators of the protests, said in a video message posted on Facebook Tuesday morning that the 84-year-old Nobel laureate had agreed to the role.
“He has given his consent considering the current situation in the country as we have informed him,” Nahid said, adding that the names of the other members of the interim government would be made public later in the day.
Yunus, a social entrepreneur, banker and economist, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering role in microcredit and microfinance.
Weeks of violent student protests led to the fall of Hasina’s government on Monday, marking a tumultuous end to her 15-year tenure. About 300 people have been killed in the demonstrations.
Following the resignation, celebrations and widespread violence were reported across Bangladesh.
Protesters said Hasina was an autocrat who used excessive force to suppress the demonstrations, which began in early July.
The protests against Hasina’s government began early last month after a US court reinstated a controversial quota system for government jobs that was abolished in 2018.
In mid-July, protests across the country escalated into violence, with clashes between police and demonstrators killing around 200 people. The government responded by deploying military troops and imposing a curfew, even before the quota reforms were made public on July 23.
Last month’s protests appeared to have subsided somewhat, but flared up again on Friday, with people demanding justice for the victims of the killings.
