The President of Bangladesh has dissolved parliament, a key demand of student protesters who led demonstrations that ousted longtime ruler, Sheikh Hasina.
The press secretary to President Mohammed Shahabuddin in a statement released on Tuesday said, “The president has dissolved parliament.”
In a related development, Bangladesh student protesters have vowed to push for Nobel laureate, Muhammad Yunus, to lead an interim government.
The move comes a day after the prime minister was ousted and the military took charge.
The main leader of Students Against Discrimination (SAD), Nahid Islam, said in a video message, “We have decided that the interim government would be formed in which internationally renowned Nobel Laureate, Dr Muhammad Yunus, who has wide acceptability, would be the chief adviser.”
Bangladesh Army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman on Monday said in a broadcast on state television that Sheikh Hasina had resigned as prime minister and the military would form a caretaker government.
Waker is expected to meet the student leaders later on Tuesday.
Yunus, 84, a respected economist, is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but earned the enmity of Hasina, who accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.
Hasina, 76, had been in power since 2009 but was accused of rigging elections in January and then watched millions of people take to the streets over the past month