Dhaka (TDI): Bangladesh’s Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus, who assumed office following a mass uprising last year, has threatened to resign if political parties fail to extend their support.
Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since student-led mass protests forced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to quit and flee to India in last August. But this week has seen an escalation in political crisis with rival parties demonstrating on the streets of Dhaka with a multiple competing demands.
Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who heads the caretaker government as its chief adviser until elections, told his cabinet he wanted to resign if political parties did not give him their full backing.
“Yunus wanted to tender his resignation, but his cabinet members persuaded him not to”, AFP reported citing sources.
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Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party— made up of many of the students who spearheaded the mass protest against Hasina — called on Yunus on Thursday evening, according to top NCP leader Ariful Islam Adee.
“They discussed the current political situation”, Adeeb said.
Yunus said he is reconsidering whether he can continue his duties under the current circumstances. But Nahid Islam urged him to continue, Adeeb added.
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Jamaat-e-Islami Chief Shafiqur Rahman has urged Yunus to convene an all-party meeting to address the crisis.
Yunus’s reported threat to quit comes a day after thousands of supporters of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rallied in Dhaka, holding large-scale demonstrations against the interim government for the first time.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
