Political Upheaval in Bangladesh: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Resigns

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced her resignation, according to a senior military official. Following weeks of demonstrations and the dramatic climax of the protests in the capital Dhaka, Hasina decided to step down. Bangladesh's army chief, Waker-Uz-Zaman, stated in a televised address that the military would initiate talks to form an interim government. Sheikh Hasina governed the South Asian country, which has a population of 170 million, for a total of two decades. Her time in office was marked by increasing unpopularity and growing protests. She was re-elected for a fifth term earlier this year after thousands of members of the largest opposition party were arrested by authorities, who had boycotted the election. Protests against a quota system for jobs, led by students, evolved last month into a broader movement against Sheikh Hasina. A brutal crackdown by the authorities resulted in about 300 deaths, with nearly 100 people dying last weekend alone in clashes between protesters and police as well as supporters of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party. Despite a military-supported curfew, protesters marched to Dhaka on Monday and reportedly stormed her residence after she had fled. As the daughter of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina led the world's eighth most populous country with increasingly autocratic tendencies. In response to massive resistance, her government withdrew the controversial quota system that reserved a third of government positions for family members of veterans of the 1971 independence war. However, the protests evolved into a broad movement against her rule. "We call upon the free world, the United Nations, and the world at large to immediately support our sole demand, the resignation of Sheikh Hasina," declared Abdul Kader, initiator of the group "Students Against Discrimination," ahead of Monday's mass protests. Witnesses in Dhaka reported large crowds confronting security forces as thousands poured into the capital. Sheikh Hasina's resignation is a severe setback for the government of neighboring India, South Asia's largest economy. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi viewed Hasina as a key ally. Bangladesh also plays a significant role as the world's second-largest exporter of garments and is a critical manufacturing hub for Western brands such as Walmart, Primark, and H&M. "It is a crossroads for Bangladesh," said Sayem Faruk, an entrepreneur who participated in Monday's protests, in a phone interview with the Financial Times.