‘Bangladesh has got its second independence,’ says the Nobel laureate before meeting the army chief, the president and the inauguration ceremony.
Nobel Peace Prize winning economist Muhammad Yunus returned to Bangladesh to head the interim government. Weeks of student protests forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India.
“It’s good to be back home,” the 84-year-old said at the capital Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Thursday after disembarking from a flight from Paris via Dubai.
Yunus was chosen by President Mohammad Shahabuddin to head the interim government, fulfilling a key demand of the student protest leaders.
Al Jazeera’s Tanveer Chowdhury, reporting from Dhaka, said Yunus is expected to go first to a meeting with the army chief and the president before being sworn in at 8pm (14:00 GMT).
“Today is a glorious day for us,” Yunus told reporters at the airport. “Bangladesh has created a new day of victory. Bangladesh has got its second independence.
Yunus’ main objective was to hold elections as soon as possible, Chaudhry said, calling for elections to be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the country’s parliament on Tuesday.
“[He] “He himself has said that he does not want to be the head of the caretaker government for a long time,” he said.
Students took to the streets over the controversial government job quota system last month, with their protests escalating into a nationwide crisis following a heavy-handed crackdown by authorities.
Nearly 300 people were killed in the weeks, one of the most violent phases of Hasina’s 15-year rule.
Hasina, 76, was forced to step down from office, along with millions of Bangladeshis celebrating her political demise.
Yunus is an economist and banker who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank, a pioneer in fighting poverty through microcredit.
“Students wanted someone who was non-controversial, non-political, neutral, had global connections and could bring something to the table for Bangladesh at this time of crisis,” Chowdhury said.
The veteran academic traveled abroad this year while out on bail after being sentenced to six months in prison on charges of being politically motivated. He was acquitted by a Dhaka court on Wednesday.
Yunus has been the victim of a smear campaign by a state-run agency accusing him of promoting homosexuality, while the courts have charged him with more than 100 criminal cases and rubber-stamping decisions by Hasina’s government.
Army chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman said he supported Yunus: “I am sure he can lead us through a beautiful democratic process.”
