By Azad Majumder
Dhaka, Aug 8 (EFE).- Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus arrived in Dhaka on Thursday to head the interim government that will bring an end to the power vacuum created by the resignation of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier this week.
Yunus landed in Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal international airport at 2:10 pm on an Emirates flight from Dubai, according to flight tracking platform Flightradar24.
Army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman, as well as other senior members of civil society and several student leaders were at the airport to receive him amid tight security, according to footage aired by local broadcasters.
The 84-year-old economist was in Paris undergoing a minor medical procedure, when his name was proposed by student leaders as head of the interim government after Hasina’s resignation and flight to India on Monday.
The swearing-in is scheduled to take place at around 8 pm in a ceremony before President Mohammed Shahabuddin and attended by some 400 people, Zaman announced on Wednesday.
The interim government will be made up of about 15 members, according to the army chief, who assured the army’s full support to the new cabinet.
Among the main priorities of the government will be the restoration of normality in Bangladesh, after the chaos unleashed by student protests and their violent repression by the authorities.
After landing in Dhaka, Yunus made a televised address praising the student movement, and describing the current development as “second liberation” and “new birth of Bangladesh.”
The first liberation was the creation of an independent Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, led by Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.
Yunus also urged the people to refrain from acts of violence and lawlessness, warning that otherwise they would not be able to reap the benefits from the movement.
“On my way, I heard the law and order situation is disrupted; people are attacking each other, setting houses on fire, destroying assets, attacking assets, and minority people are being attacked. Hindu, Buddhists, Christians everyone is being attacked,” Yunus said.
At least 400 people, mostly students and civilians, have died since the beginning of the protests, according to a report by EFE.
Although the wave of violence seems to have subsided, giving way to the reopening of shops and the return of residents and vehicles to the streets, the police were still not present on the streets on Wednesday for fear of possible reprisals from the protesters who were violently repressed.
Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, who was police chief during the repression of the protests, was dismissed on Tuesday night by the Bangladeshi president.
His successor, Md Moinul Islamm, in his first public address on Wednesday asked all police officials to report to duty.
“Indiscipline and violence are big enemies of progress and enemies of the journey that we started. (…) Our first task is restoring law and order. Until we restore law and order, we cannot take any step,” he stressed.
The student demonstrations that brought down the government began peacefully at the beginning of June to demand the removal of a quota system for government jobs and ended up causing Hasina to resign and leave the country.At least 400 people, mostly students and civilians, have died since the beginning of the protests, according to an independent count by EFE.
Although the wave of violence appears to have subsided, giving way to the reopening of shops and the return of residents and vehicles to the streets, the police were still not present on the streets on Wednesday for fear of possible reprisals from the protesters who were violently repressed.
Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, who was police chief during the repression of the protests, was dismissed on Tuesday night by the Bangladeshi president.
His successor, Md Moinul Islam, in his first public address on Wednesday asked all police officials to report to duty.
On Wednesday night, the leaders of the anti-government student protests also called for the dismissal of Supreme Court judges, appointed by Hasina, to prevent them from declaring the new government illegal.
“We demand the immediate removal of the chief justice and the judges of the Appellate Division, who are active partners in the fascist system,” said the student movement in a statement, adding that they hoped that the judges would “resign voluntarily” on Thursday morning or face “a strict program.”
Hours before the announcement, the Supreme Court had announced the suspension of all its judicial proceedings until further notice, following a conversation between Shahabuddin and Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan, local media Dhaka Tribune reported.
The Nobel laureate’s arrival comes amid much hope and anticipation in the country towards resumption of normalcy and the return of democratic principles.
Yunus, known as the “banker of the poor”, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for having founded and designed the Grameen Bank to combat poverty in Bangladesh by developing the concept of microcredit, through which loans are granted to poor people who would normally be rejected by the financial system.
He attempted to found his own party in 2007 to overcome the dualism between the two main parties in the Asian country, Hasina’s Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
In 2010, the Nobel laureate and the Grameen Bank began to face criticism of their microcredit system, and Hasina’s government launched an investigation against both.
Yunus was sentenced to six months in prison by a Bangladeshi court in January for violating labor laws. EFE
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