“Bangladesh has achieved a second independence,” says the Nobel laureate earlier than his assembly with the military chief and the president and his swearing-in ceremony.
Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus has returned to Bangladesh to steer an interim authorities after weeks of scholar protests compelled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India.
“It's good to be again residence,” the 84-year-old stated after touchdown at Hazrat Shahjalal Worldwide Airport within the capital Dhaka on Thursday on a flight from Paris through Dubai.
Yunus was appointed by President Mohammed Shahabuddin to go an interim authorities, fulfilling a key demand of scholar protest leaders.
Yunus was anticipated to first go to a gathering with the president and armed forces chief Basic Waker-Uz-Zaman earlier than an oath-taking ceremony at eight:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. GMT) the place he’s anticipated to announce his new cupboard.
“In the present day is a superb day for us,” Yunus informed reporters on the airport. “Bangladesh has created a brand new day of victory. Bangladesh has achieved a second independence.”
Yunus' primary intention is to carry elections as quickly as doable, Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury stated in a report from Dhaka. The election was scheduled to happen 90 days after the dissolution of the nation's parliament on Tuesday.
“[He] “He himself has stated that he doesn’t wish to be a long-term caretaker head of presidency,” he stated.
Final month, college students took to the streets over a controversial authorities job quota system, and their protests escalated right into a nationwide disaster after a crackdown by authorities.
In probably the most violent phases of Hasina's 15-year rule, practically 300 folks have been killed in just some weeks.
Hasina, 76, was compelled to resign and flee whereas thousands and thousands of Bangladeshis celebrated her political demise.
Yunus is an economist and banker who gained the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Financial institution, which pioneered poverty alleviation by way of microcredit.
“The scholars wished somebody who’s non-controversial and apolitical, somebody who’s impartial, who has world connections and might do one thing for Bangladesh at this second of disaster,” Chowdhury stated.
The veteran educational traveled overseas on bail this yr after being sentenced to 6 months in jail on a cost condemned as politically motivated. He was acquitted by a Dhaka courtroom on Wednesday.
Throughout Hasina's reign, Yunus was hit with greater than 100 prison circumstances and a smear marketing campaign by a state-run company that accused him of selling homosexuality.
Military chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman stated he supported Yunus: “I’m positive he can lead us by way of a beautiful democratic course of.”