DHAKA – Bangladesh’s incoming interim leader Muhammad Yunus appealed for calm Wednesday and urged all parties to help the country rebuild after weeks of violence that killed hundreds and prompted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India.
Yunus, a Nobel peace laureate, was in Paris for the Olympics when he was named interim leader following talks among military officials, civic leaders and the student activists who led the uprising against a prime minister seen as increasingly autocratic. Yunus made his first public comments in the French capital Wednesday before boarding a plane to return home.
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He congratulated the student protesters, saying they had made “our second Victory Day possible,” and appealed to them and other stakeholders to remain peaceful, while condemning any violence since Hasina’s resignation Monday.
“Violence is our enemy. Please don’t create more enemies. Be calm and get ready to build the country,” Yunus said.
Bangladesh’s military chief, Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a televised address that Yunus would be sworn in Thursday night and that he expected him to usher in a “beautiful democratic” process. The military leader said that those responsible for violence since Hasina’s resignation would be brought to justice.
Yunus, who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work developing microcredit markets, told reporters in Paris: “I’m looking forward to going back home and seeing what’s happening there, and how we can organize ourselves to get out of the trouble that we are in.″
Asked when elections would be held, he put his hands up as if to indicate it was too early to say. ″I’ll go and talk to them. I’m just fresh in this whole area.″
A tribunal in Dhaka earlier on Wednesday acquitted Yunus in a labor law violation case, involving a telecommunication company he founded, in which he was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail. He had been released on bail in the case.
Ailing opposition leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia also urged calm on Wednesday, a day after the country's figurehead president ordered her release from house arrest.
Zia urged her supporters not to follow a path of destruction, in an address at a rally via video link from her hospital bed. It was her first public speech since 2018, when she was convicted of corruption charges and jailed.
“No destruction, no anger, and no revenge, we need love and peace to rebuild our country,” she told members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Zia's son and the acting head of the party, Tarique Rahman also addressed the crowd online from London, where he has been living in exile since 2008. Rahman faces several criminal cases and was convicted of corruption and a grenade attack, charges dismissed by supporters as politically motivated.
Zia, who ruled the country from 2001 to 2006, had been sentenced in 2018 to 17 years in prison. Her party said the case was aimed at keeipng her away from politics. Hasina's then-government denied the allegation.
On Wednesday, the capital Dhaka was calm two days after violence gripped the country amid Hasina’s sudden departure. Students activists cleaned streets and managed traffic in parts of Dhaka, after police went on strike earlier in the week following violent attacks on police stations.
The country’s newly appointed police chief, Mainul Islam, ordered officers to return to work by Thursday evening.
Bangladesh's President Mohammed Shahabuddin, a symbolic figure temporarily acting as the chief executive under the constitution, asked security officials on Wednesday to take stern action against any troublemakers.
The president had dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, clearing the path for an interim administration that is expected to schedule new elections, but it's not clear when they will take place.
Shahabuddin named Yunus as the head of an interim government in consultation with the army, student leaders and other stakeholders. Yunus, an economist and banker, has been a longtime opponent of Hasina, who had called him a “bloodsucker” allegedly for using force to extract loan repayments from rural poor, mainly women. Yunus has denied the allegations.
Violence in days surrounding Hasina’s resignation killed at least 109 people — including 14 police officers, and left hundreds of others injured, according to media reports, which could not be independently confirmed. Reports said more attacks took place across the country also on Tuesday. The looting of firearms also was reported in local media.
In the southwestern district of Satkhira, 596 prisoners and detainees escaped from a jail after an attack on the facility Monday evening, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.
Homes of former ministers and MPs belonging to Hasina's party were looted, torched or vandalized. People were seen on social media taking valuables from the home of Hasina’s younger sister in Dhaka’s Gulshan area. Four separate neighbors confirmed the looting in comments to The Associated Press.
Local media also reported that ruling party officials were among the dead in this week's violence, mostly outside Dhaka. There also were reports of violence against the Hindu community and other minorities, triggering condemnation from Human Rights Watch. Details of that violence could not be independently confirmed.
Opposition politicians have publicly called on people not to attack minority groups, while student leaders asked supporters to guard Hindu temples and other places of worship.
The unrest began in July with protests against a quota system for government jobs, which critics said favored people with connections to Hasina's party. But they soon grew into a broader challenge to Hasina’s 15-year rule, which was marked by human rights abuses, corruption, allegations of rigged elections and a brutal crackdown on her opponents. More than 300 people died in just a few weeks.
The quick move to choose Yunus came when Hasina’s resignation created a power vacuum and left the future unclear for Bangladesh, which has a history of military rule, messy politics and myriad crises.
The military, which took temporary control until the interim government could be sworn in, wields significant influence in a country that has seen more than 20 coups or coup attempts since its independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Many fear that Hasina’s departure could trigger even more instability in the densely populated nation of some 170 million people, which is already dealing with high unemployment, corruption and a complex strategic relationship with India, China and the United States.
Hasina, 76, was elected to a fourth consecutive term in January, in an election boycotted by her main opponents. Thousands of opposition members were jailed before the vote, and the U.S. and U.K. denounced the result as not credible.
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Associated Press writers Andrea Rosa and Ahmed Hatem contributed to this report from Paris.