Dhaka, 5 August 2024 (TDI): Bangladesh’s army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman said on Monday that he would “form an interim government” after the prime minister resigned and fled Dhaka in the face of overwhelming protests.
“I am taking full responsibility,” the army chief said, dressed in military fatigues and a cap, although it was not immediately clear if he would head an interim government.
“We will form an interim government,” the general said in a broadcast to the nation on state television, adding that Sheikh Hasina had resigned.
He said that the country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, and many people have been killed. It is time to stop the violence.
The army chief expressed hope that, after his speech, the situation would improve.
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He said he would talk to the president to form the interim government and had held negotiations with the main opposition parties and civil society members—but not Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.
Waker is a career infantry officer who has spent nearly four decades in the army, serving two tours as a UN peacekeeper as well as in the PM office.
If the situation gets better, there is no need for an emergency, he added, vowing the new authorities would “prosecute all murders” following weeks of deadly demonstrations.
The army chief said that now the task of the students is to keep calm and help the military.
Bedecked with medal ribbons on his green uniform, the mild-looking and spectacle-wearing general was appointed to the military’s top job as chief of army staff earlier this year.
The military declared an emergency in January 2007 after widespread political unrest and established a military-backed caretaker government for two years.
Rallies that erupted last month against civil service job quotas have escalated into some of the worst unrest of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule and shifted into wider calls for the 76-year-old to resign.
