DHAKA: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed chief adviser to Bangladesh's caretaker government on Tuesday, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following a violent crackdown on an uprising led by of students.
Yunus was appointed to the post by Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin after holding meetings with student leaders and the heads of the three military services, local media reported late Tuesday, citing a statement and officials from the president's office.
Yunus, 84, and Grameen Bank, a microcredit organization, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for their work lifting millions of people out of poverty by providing small loans of under $100 to the poor in rural Bangladesh .
Student leaders have said they want Yunus as chief adviser to the interim government, and a spokesman for Yunus said he agreed. Yunus is in Paris for a medical procedure and is expected to return to Dhaka soon.
There was no immediate comment from him in response to the appointment. It was also not immediately known when he would take over the leadership of the interim government.
Earlier on Tuesday, Shahabuddin dissolved parliament, paving the way for a caretaker government and new elections.
His office also announced that the leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister who feuded with Hasina for decades, had been released from house arrest.
The student protesters threatened more demonstrations if the parliament was not dissolved.
Shahabuddin earlier said a caretaker government would hold elections soon after taking over. Nahid Islam, a key organizer of the campaign against Hasina, said in a video message: “Any government other than the one I have recommended will not be accepted.”
The move that ousted Hasina followed demonstrations against public sector job quotas for families of veterans of Bangladesh's 1971 independence war, seen by critics as a means of reserving jobs for allies of the ruling party.
About 300 people have been killed and thousands injured in the violence that has swept the country since July.
After demonstrators stormed and ransacked the prime minister's lavish residence on Monday, the streets of the capital Dhaka were peaceful again on Tuesday, with fewer traffic lights than usual and many schools and businesses closed during the still-closed unrest.
Garment factories, which supply garments to some of the world's top brands and are a mainstay of the economy, will reopen on Wednesday after being closed due to disruption, the main garment manufacturers' association said.
Hasina's run ended a second term of 15 years in power in the country of 170 million people, which she led for 20 of the past 30 years at the helm of a political movement inherited from her founding father state of Mujibur Rahman after he was assassinated in 1975.
Since the early 1990s, Hasina has feuded and alternated power with her rival Zia, who inherited her own political movement from her husband Ziaur Rahman, a ruler himself assassinated in 1981.
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Yunus, who was indicted by a court in June on embezzlement charges he has denied, told India's Times Now television that Monday marked the “second day of liberation” for Bangladesh after its war of independence in 1971 against Pakistan.
But he said Bangladeshis were angry with neighboring India for allowing Hasina to land there after fleeing Dhaka.
“India is our best friend… people are angry with India for supporting the person who destroyed our lives,” Yunus said.
The protests against Hasina were partly fueled by poverty. After years of strong economic growth as the garment industry expanded, the $450 billion economy struggled with expensive imports and inflation, and the government sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
Hasina has been accused of becoming increasingly authoritarian, with many of her political enemies jailed. Her resignation was greeted by jubilant crowds, who stormed unopposed into the opulent grounds of her residence and carted off furniture and televisions after she fled on Monday.
Hasina flew to India and is staying in a safe house outside Delhi. Indian media have reported that Hasina may travel to Britain, where she has family, including a niece who is a government minister.
Reuters could not confirm his plans. Britain's Home Office declined to comment.
Student leaders said they had received reports of attacks on minority groups, including Hindu temples in the Muslim-majority country, and called for restraint.
Hundreds of Hindu homes, businesses and temples have been vandalized since Hasina's ouster, a community association said on Tuesday. India said it was concerned about the incidents.
Reuters could not verify the extent of the reported incidents and police officers did not return calls seeking comment.
Hindus make up about eight percent of Bangladesh's 170 million people and have historically largely supported Hasina's Awami League party, which identifies as largely secular, over the opposition bloc that includes a hard-line Islamist party .
